Crashed into school time

faced contact dies.

AI survives.

Fixed in time.

Just how much more can we add to the school curriculum? To the school day? How much more responsibility can we keep giving teachers? Should they be responsible for teaching children how to behave (“No shoes on the desks, please!”) or how to eat (“Don’t use your fork like a shovel!”, “Please close your mouth when you eat!”, “Don’t throw food onto the floor at break time!” – oh yes, I worked in that school for a year. Very unpleasant.)? Or how about asking schools to make sure that your children are not aggressive towards others that are different, to make sure that your children are tolerant, respectful and courteous? Or make sure that they are out of nappies, know how to climb stairs and take part in a conversation rather than just wait to be told all the time? I’m not making this up – I did some research.

Need I go on? (“Please don’t, Alison,” I hear you say, “we’ve had enough of your rants for one day.”). I won’t. I’ll stop there. Schools should be responsible for the above (arguably) but more as a support mechanism, a reinforcement of what a child’s parents or guardians have already instilled into them. Shouldn’t they? And if you keep on adding to the curriculum and to the school day, with things that really ought to be introduced and taught at home, what comes out to make room for these things?

I’m not expecting an answer; there’s a whole load of rethinking the structure and purpose of education and schools if we go down that route. I’m using this as a way of leading into the topic of the use of AI and technology in schools to save teachers’ time, which is currently in the media (see use of AI in schools). The supporters of this idea/policy/latest trend (delete at will) wax lyrically about how the use of AI and mobile technology in classrooms (phones, tablets and so on — you know, all the things we’re trying to get children to spend less time on by having to have providers turn off the internet for us at bedtimes…) will save teachers’ time, time that they can then spend on other, more important things. What these other, more important things are, I never really got a sense of. I’m not sure what is more important than prepping and planning and then doing your lesson. But I may be wrong, and if I am, I’m sure someone will tell me.

In response to this, there have been reactions from renowned, intelligent and respected people from universities and schools in the media lately (week of 21st July, when I first started writing this), expressing their concern about the lack of appropriate evidence to support any of the proposed positives and advising caution when implementing such wholesale use of technology in schools.

None of this is new. Just Google – other search engines are available – ‘technology in teachers’ hands’. There’s a whole raft of advice, policy, and government strategy, going back years on exactly this. But does it feel like we’ve actually learned anything? To me, it feels more like we’ve just added (again) to an already overburdened curriculum and an already overburdened workforce. A workforce who are now expected to implement new technologies in the hope of saving them time – once you’ve accounted for the time it takes for the teachers to be upskilled, trained and given practice time. And I can’t be the only person wondering who is going to make money from this… (Have a look here, for example, Extramarks to reveal AI tools for teaching, learning).

We’re now, and have been for some time, being told that we need to reduce time spent on technology. And, as I said earlier in this article, we even have TV adverts for internet providers who will assume the role of parents and take away the internet for you in the evening if you’re unable to do it yourself. The above are just some examples of where there is a juxtaposition of more use of tech in schools vs. less use of tech for children and young adults. No wonder they get confused.

For me, through it all, as a seam, a thread that snakes through these ‘good intentions’ is the irony that as a society, we’re already starting to see some of the downsides of a generation of people who prefer online communications, who prefer text to phone conversations and who prefer to spend time online rather than with each other in person. Again, I’ve done some research, and not just with my own ‘children’. A professional educational psychologist told me that their research has shown that there’s a generation of young people who now shy away from using a telephone and who don’t have the confidence to make or take calls, preferring to stick to text. These young people must be taught how to make phone calls and how to speak to people on the phone. Texting all the time is great for when you’re with your friends… not so good in the workplace as you get older, I’d argue. These are the same young people who may struggle socially as well as in the workplace when put in unfamiliar situations – ones that require actual human contact. We can blame Covid, but I’m not sure it’s solely responsible.

“So, what now, Alison?” I hear you say. My view is that, like so many of my colleagues at TPEA, I think that we need to take stock, assess the situation and consider the whole issue of implementing this ‘time-saving’ technology before we go too far, spend a lot of money and can’t then retrace our steps easily – a bit like Britain’s new railway High Speed Two (HS2). Some specific, well-thought-out research would help to inform us better, as would some feasibility studies, maybe also asking teachers from all areas, from all parts of the UK (and not base the policy on research done in other countries!) what they think before we leap.

I don’t think this discussion is going away any time soon, as it’s too important, with farreaching consequences if we don’t get it right. Let’s keep talking about this because by discussing it openly, we may just be able to make sure it’s done well. Technology isn’t a panacea, but if used well, it can enhance education – and for me, that is what it’s best used for, after all.