The role of technology is changing in classrooms – and independent schools are leading the way

Ah, happy memories of the 1990s classroom. The flicker of the CRT screen; the interactive whiteboard; the screeching from the dial-up internet modem; the frantic searching for the Encyclopedia Britannica CD-Rom. These images are now as archaic as the blackboard and the slide rule. Gone are the boxy computers under a dust sheet in the corner. They’ve been replaced by hordes of gadgets, now mostly in the hands of the pupils. Walking into a classroom today is like visiting an Apple Store.

The role of technology in schools has evolved in three phases. It all began in the 1980s with the arrival of the BBC Micro and the affordable personal computer. These shiny wonder machines provided useful diversion for excited pupils and confused teachers. In the 1990s, the computers became bigger, more colourful and easier to use, but their role in the classroom barely altered. Even the addition of the odd ISDN line and flaky internet connection did not bring computers out of their lonely corner.

The second phase was the introduction of the dreadful subject of ICT, or Information and Communications Technology. The concept of coaching pupils to use computers for everyday tasks was sensible, but barely anybody knew what they were doing. ICT lessons were often taught by non-specialist teachers who didn’t like or understand their subject, so they blindly followed the manual. PowerPoint slides and clipart images were used to bore pupils into submission, even though most of them could have worked out the whole course for themselves, given the chance. Instead of incubating a generation of computer-literate youngsters, ICT instead turned them off technology. Good thing that Michael Gove has removed it from the new national curriculum.

The third phase is the one schools have entered today. Computers and curriculum now have a symbiotic relationship. Thanks to Moore’s law, which states that the power of computing doubles approximately every two years, pupils now hold more technological power in their hands than an entire school had 30 years ago.