Reviewing Buckingham’s chapter on the marketing of educational technology it focuses highly on the influence of educational technological trade market that is Bett fair. He states that he feels that while the show provides an insight into the growing importance of technology in the education setting; but education has become a free market that has made teachers are consumers market that are not necessarily making informed or profitable purchases. As a result of this the benefits of technology in education can get lost in the profits that companies now see in schools and rather promoting quality products that are necessary to pupils development can begin to sell meaningless tech that might make golden time more exciting but doesn’t extend or benefit learning. This is something that I personally came across when attending Bett fair. Things such as IPAD storage or IPADS built into desks. All really cool ideas but necessary… personally I don’t think so.
Buckingham also mentioned the increasing importance of the technological era and digital age and the effect that this is having on schools. He mentioned that the number of computers in schools has doubled over 2003-2005 by 2 million, the ratio of computers to children has decreased from 1:6 to 1:4 and school budgets have risen by 1.5 million for computing alone. These figures are something I find quite astounding with government pushing for a highly technological education and budgeting for this specifically, it is hard to see how this cannot become a profitable marketplace for huge companies. The credibility of educational technology is a crucial selling point for schools and it’s important to mediate between public and private interest. Personally, while I am concerned that the motivation for the push of educational technology is more of a profitable push for marketization of education. I like to think that teachers are smart enough to see the use of certain technology in school and can make the informed decisions needed to support their pupils with their learning and their future.
On the 25th January, myself and fellow colleagues attended bett fair at the ExCel centre, to extend our knowledge of the different technology’s that are being used within schools and, to view what technology is up and coming that we could use in our future classrooms.
Much of the technology that we saw were common in most classrooms, such as iPads, iPad storage, white boards but had been reinvented for different styled classrooms, age ranges and learning styles. While most of this technology had the ability to revolutionize most classrooms there is a point to which I think technology has a place in the classroom and should not be over used for the sake of having technology. Bellow I have listed some of the technology that I saw at bett and why I think they will be useful or unusual in the classroom. I personally through my degree have specialized within the early years and Key stage 1. With this in mind the technology that I found to be beneficial in the classroom are geared to supporting their development in a different way that a year 6 class would.
LUMO: interactive wall and floor:
The LUMO projector, is an interactive camera that is pointed to the floor or wall for children to play games and interactive with learning on a different level. These games are both fun and educational depending on the learning criteria and are easy to set up in any classroom. I personally feel that these bring forward a new way of learning that has been explored. It gets children to engage with learning by putting the tablet, pen and paper down and can jump, skip, hop and kick their way into a new way of learning. While there are disadvantages such as having the budget to have these in the classroom or even the space for children to be able to effectively use this tool. But if incorporated well could be a great learning resource. I recommend you watch the videos below as the show just some of the ways these can be used.
IPAD desks:
these are “iPad’s optimized as a desktop touch computer for education,” (Forbes,2013). Instead of having normal desks, pen and paper. Apple want to reinvent the classroom with 13’ iPad’s embed within the desk. Completely eradicating the need for paper, pens and pencils. While I can see the use of iPad’s in the classroom, only having these could have a negative effects on children’s ability to write r spell. Not to mention children from lower income families who do not have technology at home will be unable to access their work and continue their leaning on their own time. I do not think having ipad desks would benefit the classroom if used all the time.
However, while there were educational benefits to this visit, it was difficult to gain any information on the technology that was being sold, due to the lack of interest these sellers had in talking to students. It became clear that the main interest for these suppliers were to sell their product, and if you were unable to provide any information on a budget, you would be moved along. It is understandable why these occur as bett is the largest technological gathering of the year and is the optimum time for buyer. However for budding Teachers such as myself it should be taken into consideration that we in the future will need to understand the uses for these technologies and it is important that we are all included in the bringing forward of children education. Overall there should be more focus on the educational benefits of the technology being sold rather than such an emphasis on getting the most for your money.
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refrences
Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology. 1st ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Kosner, A. (2013). Will The Large Screen iPad Pro Be Apple’s First In A Line Of Desktop Touch Devices?. Forbs. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/12/29/will-the-large-screen-ipad-pro-be-apples-first-in-a-line-of-desktop-touch-devices/#5a95db725c26 [Accessed 5 May 2017].