Two Types of Learning using Educational Technology at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk

WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...

Over the last month or so since I’ve been doing some supply work I’ve been thinking about both the curriculum students study and the types of learning that take place in most classrooms (and schools) I’ve been in and around. After some reading around this it seems that a useful distinction can be made between the ways educational technology is used - ‘Type I’ learning and ‘Type II’ learning…

What do I mean by Type I and Type II learning? Well, it’s just a quick way of distinguishing between the why and the how behind the learning taking place at any given time:

Type I learning - characterized by the technology being used making teachers’ lives easier and workload lighter. Basically, the educational technology supports the way teachers currently deliver lessons and the curriculum. This is what happens in the majority of schools as far as I’ve seen. (examples: Powerpoint presentations, students typing up work neatly, taking registers electronically)
Type II learning - characterized by technology allowing teachers and students to do things which previously weren’t possible (or were difficult). I haven’t seen very much, if any, of this type of use of educational technology, unfortunately… (examples: wikis, blogs, mobile phone bluetooth file-sharing, Web 2.0 apps)

Mike Muir sums this up rather nicely with a homely example:

For example, the typewriter is Type I since it makes writing more efficient (it’s neater, and with practice you can type faster than you can write). The word processor, however, is Type II because of the ease of revision. If you need to revise or edit a paper, there is little advantage to having a typewriter over having a pen and paper. In both cases, you have to start over with a new copy. With a word processor, you simply make your changes to the existing copy and print a new one. In fact, writing teachers have noticed that young writers no longer do separate, distinct drafts of a paper (1st draft, 2nd draft, etc.). Young writers now simply do a single rolling, evolving draft. They may print a new version at certain points of their work, but each of these is not an end product of work on a specific draft, but rather a snapshot in time of the single evolving paper.

Even interactive whiteboard, perhaps the thing people think about most when the phrase ‘educational technology’ is used in most schools is used in a way which simply perpetuates the ‘teacher-at-the-front-whilst-students-watch’ model. Most of it is ‘chalk and talk’ for the 21st century. Interactive whiteboards can be used in Type II ways, however. They can be used to demonstrate ideas and concepts that previously would have either taken a lot of imagination on the part of the students or a lot of preparation time on the part of the teacher (judicious use of Google Earth being a case in point).

At the end of the day, Type II use of educational technology involves teaching with a different mindset. It’s about collaboration, about using technology in ways which are going to enhance learning rather than simply make teaching easier. It’s about disruptive technology, about using 21st century tools to prepare students for both the workplace of the future but (more importantly) to help them think in ways which will prepare them for lifelong learning.

What needs to change is our conception of what a teacher is and what a classroom should look and feel like. As Alan November says:

Teachers’ job descriptions will change from “teaching a group of students one subject at a time” to “designing learning environments that challenge each student’s approach to learning.” Then individualized learning could replace automated learning.

The classic view of a classroom has having rows of desks facing the front and teachers imparting knowledge needs to change. Fast.

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