This event has already happened, please read the write up which includes a recording.
Across the Higher Education sector there appears to be shared agreement about the value of technology to enhance student experience and to promote creative teaching environments. Learning technologies such as PowerPoint, virtual learning environments such as Moodle and e-learning platforms such as twitter are now freely available and commonplace within Higher Education. Some might say that the use of technology-enhanced teaching has become synonymous with innovation, but has this led to the deployment of technology for technology’s sake? Have we become over reliant on technology and in particular digital technology as technology par excellence?
During this seminar Dr John Troyer will discuss the theoretical and methodological role of technology within his research and the way that this has shaped his use of technology within his undergraduate teaching. He will draw on his teaching experience as a case study through which to discuss the rise of digital technology, the implication for student engagement and his attempts to avoid techno-determinism within his practices. Within the seminar he will challenge the taken for granted assumption that technology, in the form of digital technology, is inherently beneficial for students and teachers as well as wider society.
I find it very odd that you say that it is taken for granted that digital technology is inherently beneficial for students. In my capacity of Education secretary for the London Mathematical Society and then as vice-president of the Institute of mathematics, we have carried out a number of surveys of students and staff about this. The answer is always the same .. that digital methods are vastly inferior to board based methods for teaching mathematics, and that boards work much much better to develop an argument and to encourage student learning. This view is very widely supported within the entire mathematics community both in the UK and internationally. Yes, technology is important in mathematics, of course it is. But it is there to assist the lecturer only.