RED conference - summary

So I'm at this RED (rethinking education in the knowledge society) conference at a place called Monte Verita in Switzerland. Essentially this is a technology in education conference. Originally I registered to attend because I thought it was quite relevant to my Director of Studies job in the Science & Technology Faculty - I think this was a good move. Unfortunately, I am coming to the end of my time in that job, so it seems to be no longer of much relevance to me personally. I am learning about various things, incorporating technology in the classroom etc, but without my position as DoS I guess I don't really have the opportunity to spread this too widely. There have been a few talks though that I have found to be relevant to my own teaching - so (of course) perhaps there is scope to have impact by making changes in my own teaching and demonstrating to others how this can be useful to learning.

Something that has really struck me, perhaps because this field is outside that of my traditional research (ie math bio), is that a lot of time, effort and money seems to be spent on studies that (at least to me) have obvious outcomes. I'll oversimplify things to make obvious what I mean: "Are computers useful for learning x in context y". The answer being "well it depends". Clearly explaining what "learning x" means is really important here. Clearly outlining what "useful" means is important. I guess my point is, in a lot of the studies the question is answered prior to the study because the researcher is defining what they mean by these terms in such a way that it reflects their position on the question.

It has however been good to hear people talking about learning outcomes being more important than technology incorporation. That is, talking about what it is that you want students to learn rather than what new gizmo you want to bring into your classroom. Think about what you want people to learn and then if there is scope for some new technology to actually play a role, figure out a way to incorporate it. Otherwise, leave it on the shelf. It's good when people don't forget what's important!