Technical innovations in the classroom

There's constantly a call to introduce new technology in the classroom, to overcome a perceived lack of adult engineers, computer programmers, scientists and so on in the wider economy. Sometimes there is also the claim that new technology can accelerate learning.

On the first, what limits the economy, as far as schools are concerned, is the number of 6th formers leaving school with good qualifications in maths, physics and chemistry. ,But all of those subjects can be taught up to a good pre-university standard with technology available in the first half of the 20th century. It's only at university level itself that students need to be taught state of the art techniques.

On the second, the claim that technology can accelerate learning, yes there will always be instances where that is true. But use of technology is not a good way to judge a school, it's not a factory. There's no point teaching industry standard software packages except in the last years of secretarial qualifications, because by the time the children enter the workforce, the packages will have changed. There is a case for getting children familiar with a mouse and keyboard, if only because typing is a lot faster than hand-writing material, and easier for teacher to read. Technology can also be used as a gimmick. Gimmicks by definition lose their effectiveness if you try them too often, but that doesn't mean you should have no gimmicks. Just that the gimmick - a 3D printed molecule or whatever - can't be the mainstay of your educational strategy.

Finally, programming is addictive. A "code junkie" is better than a real junkie, but it's still something to avoid.