Replacing blackboards with interactive whiteboards was a waste of money which did not help pupils’ learning, the Education Secretary has said.
Damian Hinds last Tuesday urged headteachers to embrace modern technology as a classroom aide. But he acknowledged that ministers’ attempts to harness digital innovation have in the past been ill-conceived.
Writing in last Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph, he said: “I recognise that in the past, Governments have been guilty of imposing unwanted technology on schools.
“Over a decade ago expensive interactive whiteboards were rolled out to schools, without the support of teachers, and we saw no subsequent rise in pupils’ attainment directly linked to that technology.”
In 2004, the then Education Labour Secretary Charles Clarke launched a modernisation drive which included axing blackboards and chalk, or whiteboards and felt-tip pens, in favour of interactive whiteboards.
As part of a £15 billion drive to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in Britain, it was announced that all primary schools would receive the new boards and they would be automatically installed in every classroom when new schools are built.
At the time, the National Union of Teachers hailed the demise of blackboards, with a spokesman saying: "Interactive whiteboards are extremely beneficial. Getting rid of blackboards would also put a stop to that awful screeching noise made by chalk."
Two years later, a Cambridge University study into interactive whiteboards found that they had “been introduced in British classrooms at a rate unprecedented anywhere else in the world”.
Researchers said that by 2004, almost two thirds (63 per cent) of primary schools in England and Wales had at least one interactive whiteboard, adding that “it seems likely that every primary schoolchild in England and Wales has some experience of them”.
However, the research paper concluded that while interactive whiteboards enable innovative teaching styles, their use “cannot be claimed to ‘transform teaching’ in terms of the classroom dialogue and underlying pedagogy".
Mr Hinds wrote that schools must decide which products suit them best, as he warned teachers not to get duped by novelty items which offer little value to learning.
“With around a thousand tech companies selling to schools, it’s by no means easy to separate the genuinely useful products from the fads and the gimmicks," he said.
He told how he has seen state-of-the-art technology allowing pupils to explore Amazonian rainforests, steer ships and programme robots in some schools.
But Mr Hinds said it is “disappointing” that many in the education sector are failing to embrace these kinds of digital advances.
He said if used appropriately, technology has a huge potential to support students’ learning, save money and reduce the workload of teachers.
The Education Secretary said he intends to host a summit of education and technology leaders to discuss what kind of products are actually needed in schools.
Officials at the Department for Education said they are particularly interested in technology that can be used to help children with particular educational needs, to speed up the process of marking tests and to ease the administrative burden on teachers.
