Activity 21: The chicken and egg conundrum – technology and pedagogy inter-relate

Timing: 3 hours

1  Use the forum to discuss the relationship between technology and pedagogic theory and practice, drawing on your own context and experience.

What is your own experience and view?

I live and teach in China currently at an IB World School, my experience of technology within teaching extends to the use of "Smartboards" in the classroom and students access to it outside of the classroom, usually at home rather than at school 

Do you regard either pedagogy or technology as more significant than the other?

Technology supports pedagogy especially as it has to cater towards the available technology within the users school environment and the available tech. However in the age of the "app" technology has evolved to such an extent that applications are created to develop pedagogy in areas possibly not previously thought of

How do technology and pedagogy influence each other?

Having just returned from a workshop with EARCOS entitled "Transforming your classroom" we discussed and presented a large number of technological aids to pedagogy. However we had to always keep in mind "How does it help the learner?" student centred learning (SCL) should be our focus when implementing technology within the learning environment at all times

Do you have experience where either technology or pedagogy has been given more weight than the other?

In this area my experience probably extends to that of the TOEFL online test where the assessment is, in my opinion done in an unnatural environment and is not conducive to the students passing the exam. Other times where technology has been used but is inappropriate is a school I know of where all textbooks are online and students use tablets to access and annotate,  this particular school does not have reliable internet access as such problems with pedagogy occur very regularly