The role of technology in teaching and learning in 2021

14 October 2021

As part of the event of ‘25 years of educational technology in Estonia’ researchers (TLU), teachers, policymakers (HarNo) and industry partners (NetGrupp OÜ) discussed together the role of technology in teaching and learning and future trends. Questions like what fundamentals technology has brought to education, what key processes have changed and where gaps remain. What will be the future collaboration between teachers and technology, how to prepare teachers for this and what infrastructures do we need to make full use of the potential of technology in education?

It was commonly acknowledged that technology never replaces the teacher, but teachers need to be trained and supported to understand how to teach their subject in such a way that technology adds value to basic processes. Technology was mainly a tool that helps to enhance the creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills of the students. However, the advances in technology developments, learning analytics and Artificial Intelligence, also turn technology into a teacher tool that helps teachers to understand how students’ are learning to personalised the teaching, learning and assessment.