Taking the tablets: has the long predicted revolution in teaching and learning finally arrived?
Professor Christina Preston, MirandaNet Fellowship
Dr Sarah Younie, MirandaNet Fellowship and Director Education Futures Centre, De Montfort University
Chapter to be published in:
Handbook for Digital Learning in K-12 Schools
A. Quinn and T. Hourigan (eds), Springer
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Final Draft 1st February 2016
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Ever since the MirandaNet Fellowship of educators was founded in 1992 (1), this professional e-community has been expecting a revolution in teaching and learning because of the impact of digital technologies in schools. Over the years we have grown from fifteen teachers in England who saw themselves as thought leaders in education innovation to more than one thousand and two hundred members in eighty countries. Our online and face-to-face debates and our members’ publications on our website bear witness to exponential increase in the use of technology in business and leisure as a global phenomenon.
Our hopes for a revolution in the field of education strengthened in 1997 when the UK government introduced the National Learning Grid: the first internet service for education in the world. However, we are a professional organisation who are enthusiasts for change. Generally speaking, unlike the workplace that has been transformed by technology, most classrooms have continued to look much the same for the last 100 years. Most pointedly Younie and Leask (2013) comment on how the integration of technology has not been fully realised in education because of the lack of knowledge by decision makers – both policy makers and school leaders – about the opportunities opened up for new pedagogical approaches with technology.