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The bang that almost gave me a heart attack this morning was this book landing on the door mat. I will be reviewing it for SchoolsWeek magazine, so this is very much a quick look, with the emphasis on “quick”.
Without wishing to prejudge anything, it looks promising if the description on the back cover is anything to go by. One of the aims is to bridge the gap between research and practice, which is always a problem. Academics tend to write learned articles that, I suspect, are read mainly by other academics, so anything that can translate some of that research into practical advice is to be welcomed.
Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy reading learned articles (I need to get out more) and I am very much a visionary as far as what edtech can help students and teachers achieve is concerned. But whenever I’m at a conference listening to a speaker describing an education technology version of Shangri La I can’t help muttering to myself: yes, but how will this help me with Year 10 on Friday? Ditto learned articles.
Another aspect of the book appears to be looking at how a teacher’s attitudes and beliefs can influence the benefits they and their students are likely to enjoy from the use of edtech. If I’m right, this will be welcome. While it is always dangerous to rely on common sense as a guide to practice, it does seem fairly obvious that if a teacher doesn’t think technology is worth using it’s likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Certainly, thirty five years of teaching teachers how to use technology in the classroom have done nothing to dispel that notion as far as myself is concerned. I have written about this and given a couple of talks about it, but I have to say that the experience has felt like being a voice in the wilderness. If this book has indeed collated the research and presented it in a digestible format that will be all to the good.
Anyway, we shall see. I haven’t read the numerous blurbs that festoon the book for the simple reason that I prefer to approach a book in a state of tabla rasa as far as possible. Of course, this isn’t possible at all, but we must all do what we can.
Once my review has appeared in the pages of SchoolsWeek I will link to it here and also publish it in full in due course.
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