Exploring Digital Technology at Our Primary Campus: Partnering With Parents

By Alan McCarthy, Primary Principal

At Alice Smith School, we are working together with our parent community to explore students’ experiences with digital technology at our Primary Campus. It was wonderful to see so many parents attend our recent workshop on this important topic, whose presence and enthusiasm show just how much this subject matters to our community. 

For some time, we have been reflecting on our approach to technology and its impact on student learning, and we know that your input is vital to this conversation.

Engaging in Meaningful Dialogue

To start our session, we used a teaching strategy familiar to our students: the Four Corner Debate. Parents were invited to express their views on two key statements:

• “Technology should be banned from schools.”
  All parents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement.
• “Educating children to use technology is essential for their future success.”
  All parents agreed or strongly agreed with this statement.

This lively discussion set the tone for a thoughtful exploration of how technology fits into our children’s education.

Reflecting on Global Perspectives

Parent participants then watched a short video from the UNESCO GEM Report 2023, which raised important questions, such as: “On whose terms is the child engaging with technology?” This encouraged us to reflect on the role of technology in our children’s lives and learning. This led us to share insights into how students currently experience digital technology at school, both in the classroom and during breaks, lunchtime, and our EPA programme. Our core message is clear: while technology is a valuable tool, face-to-face human interaction remains the foundation of learning at our Primary Campus.

Our Approach to Digital Technology Use in Learning

Our beliefs about learning are at the heart of everything we do. We see learners as equal partners in the learning process - capable of self-direction, reflection, and constructing their own understanding. We shared recent developments that have shaped our thinking and how technology can support, rather than replace, meaningful learning. For more details, please refer to slide 11 in our slide deck here.

Evidence-Based Direction

Our approach is guided by reliable, impartial research. We highlighted two key sources:

• UNESCO GEM Report on Technology in Education (available in several languages)
• Laura Knight’s recent paper, “Educating the Child: Digital Literacy and Wellbeing”

We discussed findings from these reports, including concerns about AI-driven learning apps (such as Doodle or Times Tables Rockstars). Evidence suggests these apps can influence children’s attention and emotions, and that young learners may not yet be digitally mature enough to recognise this.

Gathering Parent Feedback

Engaging session participants using another classroom strategy: the ‘Chalk Talk’ thinking routine, parents reflected on thought-provoking questions and wrote their responses silently. These valuable insights will help guide our future decisions about technology in school. You can view the responses here. Throughout the session, we also used Trevor McKensie’s ‘question pencil’ strategy to collect parent questions, which we have compiled and answered here.

Thank you to all parents who attended for your active participation and thoughtful feedback. We are committed to ongoing collaboration as we shape the digital technology experience for our students. Look out for more technology-focused sessions in the new school year—we look forward to working together to ensure the best for our children.