While the “knowledge versus skills” debate continues to hog the number one spot when it comes to topics that get teachers arguing, the “good tech versus bad tech” debate is raging not far behind. 

This divergence of views is because we tend to approach technology with our own entrenched positions on whether it essentially enhances learning or is a dangerous distraction. 

Based on our own experience of education - from the “I didn’t even have a pen and it didn’t do me any harm” at the Luddite end of the scale, to the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed early adopters who were attempting flipped learning via the Nokia 5110 - we draw conclusions that are less to do with fact and more to do with hope, be that for a more connected classroom or a less connected one. 

We need a less emotional, more reasoned approach. Teachers are busy enough. We don’t want to waste precious time and resources redesigning our classrooms around the technological equivalent of the Sinclair C5 or Google Glass but nor do we want to miss out on something that could really help. 

So how do we sort the top tech from the trash? 

As someone who is not immune to the “Oooh, look! Shiny!” approach to shopping, my first rule of thumb is to ignore any shiny newness altogether. 

Yes, I know it’s tempting you with its hypnotic glow and smooth, ergonomic style (shiny!) but rule one is to ignore the actual object in front of you. Why? Because you need to ask yourself what educational purpose this lovely shiny thing will serve. Tech must serve you and your students, otherwise you are staring at a futuristic fossil.

So before you pick up anything more technologically advanced than pen and paper, you need to start by thinking about the purpose of the tech you plan to purchase. It must relate to existing, proven-to-be-successful teaching methods.

It is important to have a teaching cycle in mind. Here are some of my favourites: Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby’s “expert teaching” model from their useful book, Making Every Lesson Count,(challenge, explanation, modelling, deliberate practice, questioning and feedback); London headteacher Tom Sherrington’s “objectives, explain, model, practice, check” from his fabulous Ten Silver Arrows blog (headguruteacher.com), or the “six strategies” (retrieval, elaboration, spaced practice, interleaving, concrete examples, dual coding) from learningscientists.org. With this in mind, I’d like to share four ways in which technology genuinely enhances my teaching. 

Intention: live expert explanation, scaffolding and modelling 
Tech: visualiser and interactive whiteboard 

“Expert” means us, the teachers. We need to be modelling how we do our expert thing, live, for the students. It’s not quite as exciting as the Strictly dance-off (actually it probably is, to me) but it is one of the most important things we do. 

Whether it’s modelling how to expertly approach an exam question, annotate a text, apply a particular technique or method, or co-constructing responses with the class, there are two basic but essential tools for this: the humble visualiser and the interactive whiteboard.

The visualiser enables students to see you write by hand, as they will be expected to in class and in exams, marking up a question or paper, writing, crossing out, adapting as you go, with the writing process mirroring your expert thinking process. 

As a touch-typer, I find the whiteboard slightly faster to use, and I enjoy it particularly for joint construction when I am working with the whole class to create or improve a piece of work. 

The co-created model then stays on the board, possibly annotated (deconstructed again) for key features, while the pupils engage in deliberate practice to create their own independently.

Intention: memorisation 
Tech: an assortment of apps 

This has jumped up the charts for me recently as an English teacher facing closed-book examinations. If they don’t know it, they can’t write about it. Memorisation is therefore a key and, until recently, relatively unpractised skill that our students need to master. Exploring resources from learningscientists.org and deansforimpact.org is a good first step to ensure that you’re picking out the tech that can really have an impact and not wasting your students’ time on brain gym-type activities. 

There are websites such as allthetests.com, quizfactor.com and apps such as Memrise or Quizlet for creating low-stakes quizzes to test pupils’ memory of key facts. 

Meanwhile, there are so many beautiful apps and websites to create visuals to go with the text, numbers or facts we need our students to know. Typorama is a great example. Students can play about with these outside school to create their own quizzes, flashcards and visuals to store on their own phones and access any time (not in class, obviously - we don’t do phones in class, we’re a “see it, hear it, take it” school).

Intention: assessment and feedback 
Tech: whiteboard, YouTube, blogs and online documents 

Quite frankly, tempting though it is, there’s no point us thinking we’re amazing at teaching if we don’t check that they’ve learned what we’ve taught properly, so assessment and feedback is a high priority. The quizzes are a great, low-stakes way of doing this, but we will need to check other extended pieces of work or exam papers at some point. Assessment does not have to involve laborious marking of individual books with multiple coloured pens: it can also make use of technology. You could try:

1. Using the whiteboard for whole-class feedback or “examiners report”-style corrections

2. YouTube for feedback videos to the class

3. Assessing work directly online. 

Chris Waugh from the London Nautical School has pioneered this fabulously (bit.ly/UnlockingAchievement), but many media studies teachers comment on student blogs for instant feedback and there are myriad ways in which students’ work can easily be uploaded, shared and commented upon. Google docs, virtual learning environments (VLE) or other file-sharing tools can be used responsively. Having read or marked student work you can:

1. Add wider reading documents plugging gaps in, or extending, knowledge (this can be anticipated and resources built in advance)

2. Drop in one feedback document that all students can access (this could include individual feedback or whole-class comments)

3. Give links to videos, documents or other high-quality resources for students to access outside of school hours (call it preparation, homework or flipped learning as you will).

Intention: parent contact  
Tech: VLE, email, text or electronic bulletin

We can be so busy in our classrooms that we forget the crucial role of parental engagement. My final top tech tip would be back to basics and focused on staying in touch with parents. However you do it, whether picking up the phone to individual parents, using your school’s parent text or email system, creating a regular parent bulletin or building resources on the VLE, regular parent contact should be one of our priorities when it comes to using tech for the benefit of our students.

Bad tech?

All tech can be bad tech if you don’t have a solid educational reason for using it, but in my experience, anything that puts an individual device in a student’s hand, whether smartphone, iPad or laptop, can potentially lead to trouble. They are hard to monitor individually, can distract from the core learning and can have technical failures that will have you running around distracted from the purpose in hand. 

For me, tech in the physical classroom is for teachers. And if the tech fails, according to recent research from the Education Endowment Fund, a pen and paper can be just as, if not more, effective.

Stephanie Keenan is curriculum leader for English and literacy at Ruislip High School in London. She blogs at mskeenanlearns.wordpress.com and is on Twitter @stephanootis