VIEWS & OPINION
How technology has supported hybrid work in the education
sector during the pandemic Comment by Derek Foster, Associate Professor of Computer Science, The University of Lincoln
Being a professor in computer science, IT solutions and devices are paramount to the day job. However, my use of technology has changed during the pandemic; we were already quite agile at Lincoln, but as lectures became entirely remote, we had a lot of feedback from our students asking us to invest more in technology capable of improving both the audio and visual quality of our online and streamed lectures. Initially that led me to purchase a new webcam and microphone, and a larger monitor to help take the strain away from my eyes when I was working from home. However, since using a Microsoft Surface Laptop 4, with its audio and camera quality, and enlarged vertical screen, my reliance on those tech add-ons has naturally decreased.
I don’t often use the desktop machines onsite, so my laptop is really my mainstay device and has everything I need accessible there. Office
365 and Teams video calls are used for all my internal communication. And, when it comes development work, I’d be frequently opening Visual Studio, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver – all of which are reasonably compute intensive and ultimately vital for my every day, so having a laptop powerful enough to run all of these is crucial to my work.
Whereas I use my laptop for creating content and sharing information, I increasingly find myself using my Surface Duo for reading and consuming information. Especially if I’m travelling on a train - or tram as we have in Lincoln, working on the Duo is much more discreet, and because it folds means I can use it in those kinds of public spaces more privately too.
As we move towards a more hybrid approach now, I can see customisation and consolidation being important across all my devices. I think too that it’s clear some requirements that emerged during the past year are here to stay. I need really good equipment, so that delivery of online content can be up to the standards the university needs and I can continue to work in a hybrid setting. Where consolidation is concerned, I think there is a lot to be said for having fewer devices, however particularly in my area of work it’s tough for departments to provide devices that suit every individual’s needs.
Holding a PhD in Computer Science and an MSc in Human-Centred Interactive Technologies, Derek Foster teaches computer science and the application of technology within social contexts as Associate Professor at the University of Lincoln.
Values and attitudes crucial for climate education
Comment by FELICIA JACKSON, Chair of the Learn2Think Foundation
Research by education campaign Teach the Future found that 70% of teachers feel they haven’t received adequate training to educate students about Climate Change. Yet as a subject Climate Change doesn’t sit easily anywhere – it involves Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geography, History, Politics, and Economics, and the perceived issues and solutions are changing all the time. Italy in 2020 was the first country to
make Climate Study compulsory in schools but putting it into practice in the classroom has been patchy. The tackling of climate change is a Wicked problem - complex, difficult to solve, crosses many disciplines and affects many people. When ‘facts’ and knowledge are constantly evolving it’s thinking tools - the ability to view information with a critical eye, research widely and consider multiple perspectives - that will serve our pupils best for the future rather than overwhelming teachers and pupils with conflicting data and apocalyptic forecasts. At the end of October, the UK Parliament held its first-ever debate on climate education. The Westminster Hall Debate, tabled by Nadia
November 2021
Whittome MP, the youngest sitting MP, in partnership with students aged 13-18 from the Teach the Future campaign, was intended to examine sustainability and climate education in the UK curriculum. To highlight how diverse the subject is, the debate covered a range of topics, including disparities in climate education around the world, education for girls and women, ensuring the right climate change information is included in the UK education syllabus, and how to provide career guidance on green jobs. Earlier this year, the largest study ever conducted into the effects of the
climate crisis on the mental health of young people revealed nearly half (45%) of young people globally feel climate anxiety negatively affects their daily life. It also found that almost two-thirds (64%) of young people around the world believe governments are not doing enough to protect them from climate change. Teach the Future is a youth-led campaign, composed of secondary and
tertiary students from all four nations of the UK, aiming to rapidly reorientate the education system around the climate emergency, social justice and sustainability. Scarlett Westbrook, a 17-year-old organiser with the Teach the Future campaign and UKSCN said, “Our approach to climate education urgently needs to change: the current curriculum is failing young people and causing escalating levels of climate anxiety.” If our leaders are unable, or unwilling, to take the necessary action to
address climate change, then children need to feel empowered. It’s no longer useful to equip our children with what they need to thrive in a world that no longer exists. The reality of extreme weather, as well as economic and social change driven by the impacts on the systems that sustain us, requires that we integrate critical thinking about climate change into the curriculum, and now. Our Climate Change resources for Tolerance Day 2021 can be found at
http://www.toleranceday.org/new-for-today-2021.html
www.education-today.co.uk 25
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