Teacher mediation of classroom learner response technology

As adults we will all have experienced the use of smart phones to gather and share responses from a large lecture audience. This study investigates how teachers and young children mediate similar technology in their primary school classrooms. With research funding from the Bowland Trust, thirty-six teachers in University of Cumbria partnership primary schools were provided with a class set of handheld robust ‘pods’ with mini keyboard and small screen and associated software to allow children to respond to multi-choice but also to send open text responses. The technology is clearly popular with the vast majority of teachers and children but the analysis identified a significant tension in using the classroom learner response technology between developing the pupils as learners and preparing them to perform in national tests. We considered this tension to focus on the contested object of learning, the purpose of education, between the classroom level and the wider national policy framework. The technology needs to be used with care and with critical pedagogical thinking by teachers.