José Picardo on how to get the best out of technology in teaching- 105

José Picardo joined us this week to talk about technology in the classroom. José is Assistant Principal at Surbiton High School which is an independent school for girls. He teaches Spanish and German but was originally in the logistics industry, deciding to become a teacher more than 15 years ago. José is also in charge of Digital Strategy at Surbiton High despite not having a background in technology. He sees this as an advantage because he thinks that knowing what happens in the classroom is important rather than just coming from a technological point of view. The position became available when the school invested in mobile technology a few years ago. How do you get the best out of technology? Technology should be invisible. It should be something you expect to work. You don’t bring candles into your classroom in case the electricity doesn’t work. José believes that technology should always be there in the background – it should be enabling and you shouldn’t have to plan your lessons to cope if the technology doesn’t work. His aim is to have technology available and reliable in his school so there has been a lot of investment in the wifi connection, projector-less Interactive Whiteboards and the quality of the internet connection. On top of this, the school has also concentrated on improving teaching and learning more generally – with and without technology. We haven’t bought tablets and expected magic to happen. The school has done a lot of research into how tablets can enhance teaching and learning – the school trains its staff to be better teachers and introduces technology to, for example, help them give better feedback or help their students be better organised or collaborate better. It’s all about how technology can fit into the picture of what makes great teaching. Technology in language teaching Old-fashioned language labs were removed from Surbiton High several years ago. José says this typifies how technology in learning has changed. Teachers used to plan a lesson for the language lab and take their classes to the technology. Now, however, tablets ‘are’ the language lab so teachers just plan lessons and use the technology where it is useful. Children can record themselves… Read the rest of the show notes on the Pivotal Education site Pivotal Podcast Popcorn – listen and subscribe now! NEW! Pivotal Education’s New App: The new app for Apple and Android devices contains everything you need to know about Pivotal as well as access to our podcasts, resources, videos and news: (Creative Commons Sound clip by Johnny Pixel Productions, Inc. – http://www.johnny-pixel.com/ http://www.freesound.org/people/jppi_Stu/) What would you like to hear covered in forthcoming episodes? Let us know by emailing [email protected] * Subscribe to the podcast * Listen for free every week * Send in your comments or questions * Get involved!