Too much emphasis on tech-based learning can result in negative outcomes: OECD official

Use of technology over traditional methods of teaching in classrooms for school children may not always result in superior outcomes and sometimes the return is "negative", a senior official from the Organisation for EconomicA Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Monday.

"We don't have systematic tool to track technology-based learning, neither in England nor across countries. We lack data on the evidence," Andreas Schleicher, the Director of Education and Skills, OECD, said here at a press interaction during the Education World Forum.

"It is believed that technological intensity will raise the level of learning outcome. But it is seen that sometimes a lot of emphasis on technology can do more damage," Schleicher said replying to an IANS query.

"We really do not have good understanding of those relations," he added.

The official suggested that it's not really known yet how children learn and the current trend of emphasis on technology may to some extent be misgiven.

"We lack data on how technology is used. It's not enough to know how many computers are used. But how technology is being deployed in classrooms.

"How students learn... Probably neuroscience will open insights into that more than technology as such," he said.

"Using 21st century technology with 20th century pedagogy and 19th century school system, it just doesn't add up".

Batting for the role of teachers as important cogs in the machinery of school education, the official dismissed the idea of their becoming irrelevant with the use of technology, maintaining that "learning is always a social and relational process".

Education World Forum is one of the biggest gatherings of Education Ministers and education practitioners in the world. It is being held for the last 16 years in the United Kingdom and is supported by the Department of Education and the British Council among many.

--IANS

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