Resources: human capital, time and space for schools of the future - Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide - page 178

Table 9.4 choosing digital resources: points to consider

Support for learning: Do the digital resources:
Help learners to explore
ethical and moral issues in
a practical context through
the need to deal with
inappropriate sites

Facilitate interactions
between teachers and
learner as well as between
learners

Help learners gain a range
of perspectives through
monitoring multiple channels of
communication

Provide a range of learning
routes

Help with demonstrations support planning via use of

hyperlinks

Provide opportunities to share
learning, collaboratively edit
and add to work

Provide access to school/
college systems from
anywhere

offer innovative ways of
communicating though music
and sport

support communication and
collaboration via cameras,
podcasts, wikis

Provide time to think and
apply knowledge instead
of taking notes because
the lesson can be printed

Help teachers to keep abreast of
current specialisms like Assessing
Pupil Progress (QcA booklet)

Provide a means of publishing
samples of good work

Provide quick recording
of data from class
discussion

support learning by backchannel
chat around main activity

Help very young children and
children with writing difficulties
to record and publish their work

Provide opportunities for
pupils to personalize their
own learning
Communications support - technology-based tools and digital resources:
Via video conferencing and
other tools connect people,
teachers, learners across
distances: e.g. for global
collaboration

Help to involve parents
via learning platforms in
the home

Provide access to a broad
curriculum through links with
learners elsewhere and support
anywhere anytime learning -
learners no longer limited to
being in school/college

Provide business sites for the
community

Provide professional
presentation of resources

prevented from developing leading practice because institutional processes prevent
innovation. Even where teachers are willing to adopt new practices, keeping up to
date can be difficult, and school leaders as part of their vision for the school will need
to plan for ways of supporting teachers in keeping abreast of progress.

How do teachers find out about new tools and resources?

Teachers contributing to the Education Futures research (Leask and Preston 2010)
were asked how they keep up to date and find out about new tools and resources.