Future of education? Teachers giving homework feedback on the phone

A summit in Dublin is to hear that traditional homework could be a thing of the past.

Learnovation is a one-day EdTech summit which will be held at Croke Park in Dublin next Wednesday and will hear how using technology will help transform the lives of learners in the workplace, schools, at third level and in the home.

One of the speakers at Learnovation, Abdul Chohan, will tell 300 delegates about how teachers can use technology to do things very differently in their schools.

At the school he co-founded, The Olive Tree School in Bolton, England, teachers don’t mark books anymore. Instead, they give voice feedback.

Mr Chohan said: “Children in our school, from the age of five up, take photos of their homework and upload this directly to the teachers.

"Teachers can then tap on various parts of the work on that phone and give direct voice feedback.”

Mr Chohan added that research shows this method reduces time spent by teachers marking books and significantly improves the quality of the feedback.

He said: “There is also an emotive reason for it in that it builds a personal relationship with the child as well as their parents as parents can hear what the teacher is saying to the children, which improves communication and transparency.

"Our research has shown that in areas of social deprivation, children make a lot of progress quickly with that kind of approach to learning.

“People can be scared of technology. Traditional schools have been investing in the wrong tools. By investing in the right tools, you can see progressive developments start to happen. Pupils develop intelligence, parents learn skills and their understanding of the technology is improved.”

Other topics to be covered at the summit are gaming and Virtual Reality in education, and the future of work.