If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed much in my twenty-five years working in Irish education, it’s that conversations about technology in schools tend to focus on equipment rather than how technology can transform learning.
Whether we are debating interactive screens, iPads versus Chromebooks or unreliable Wi-Fi, I rarely hear enough about what children are actually doing.
That’s not to say pupils aren’t using technology. It is used in many schools to practise literacy and numeracy, research topics, create presentations and support pupils with additional needs. Used well, it can make learning more accessible and allow children to demonstrate their understanding beyond a handwritten page.
The trouble is, technology remains one of the most underdeveloped aspects of primary education. Government funding is modest and irregular. Current funding works out at approximately €30 per pupil, with schools expected to purchase equipment, replace old equipment, source software, and pay for maintenance and all of their own technical support.
There is also no coherent, nationally supported programme for integrating technology across the Irish Primary Curriculum. Schools frequently rely on software developed for the UK or US. Irish educational publishers have produced some excellent content in recent years, but the overall approach remains fragmented.
Meanwhile, parental concerns about screen time have led some schools to step back from technology. The irony is that during the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were criticised for not providing enough online learning, but I digress. That aside, the argument keeps centring on the amount of technology rather than the quality of what children are doing with it.
I see this as a huge lost opportunity.
Children need meaningful opportunities to learn through the technology already shaping their world. As we move from the Internet era into one increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence, failing to teach children how to navigate technology is dangerous and irresponsible. I should say, at this point, handing every child a device and hoping for the best is equally irresponsible.
The challenge is to help pupils understand when technology is useful, how to question what it produces and when they need to think for themselves. Putting a child in front of a screen does not automatically improve learning. A digital worksheet is still a worksheet. A flashy app can waste just as much time as a poor textbook. Asking a child to press a button and generate a story using ChatGPT is not a meaningful learning activity.
My mantra has always been simple: if technology improves the learning, use it. If it doesn’t, don’t. That hasn’t changed in over twenty years.
It means starting with the learning rather than the device. What are we trying to help the child understand, create or communicate? Does the technology make that possible in a richer or more accessible way? Could the same outcome be achieved more effectively through discussion, practical activity, reading or writing?
Technology does not need to appear in every lesson. It needs to earn its place. We must stop judging it as simply good or bad because it is neither. When used badly, it can cause real harm. For example, one of the saddest sights in modern-day Ireland is a toddler in a buggy absorbed in an iPad. Another is seeing a whole class of children staring blankly at an Interactive Whiteboard showing a YouTube clip during lunch time.
Used meaningfully, however, technology can transform a child’s learning and open doors that were previously inaccessible. Assistive technology can give a voice to a pre-verbal child. A personalised maths programme can help a pupil struggling to keep pace with the curriculum.
These are two simple examples of technology’s power of good. Our choice, like most choices we make in life, is which path we choose. As teachers, our job is to find meaningful opportunities for learning at all times, whether that’s using technology or not.
– Simon Lewis
Listen: Bytesize E01
Angela Doyle Stuart travels to Educate Together, Carlow, to speak with Simon Lewis about developments in technology for schools and its role in education.
Bytesize is supported by Coimisiún na Meán with the television license fee.
