Speaker urges technology must change educational methods, not be used as a different way to do the same thing

By Kelline Linton
Chief Copy Editor

Dr. Steve Molyneux, the first keynote speaker for the ACU ConnectEd Summit, discussed how educators should deliver content to the Neo-Millennial learner.

Molyneux, who is from the United Kingdom, stressed technology by itself is nothing. What educators and students do with the technology is what matters.

To date, the UK government has invested $8 billion in information technology for classes, kindergarten to 12th grade. Molyneux said this money mainly was used to automate, not innovate. He said educators should not use funds to streamline existing educational practices; instead, the investment should focus on developing new ways of teaching.

“We need transformation for the 21st century,” he said. “We need to engage students and empower the learner, so the educational experience has meaning.”

Placing a book on the Internet and allowing students to read it from a computer screen is not an engaging experience. Molyneux called this dilemma the “emperor’s new clothes.”

“The value in the textbook is not in the content, but in how we use it,” he said.

Although the educational content found in the traditional classroom is identical to the content found in the new technological environment, the structure should not be the same, he said.

Molyneux recommends content be reformatted in innovative ways. Both teachers and students can create the content for the digital lessons. By creating, the students engage in the technology.

“True educational transformation will take place when empowering learning tools and corresponding content are put in their hands,” he said.

He said if educators are imaginative and bold, they can create a 2nd Renaissance fit for the digital age.

But both students and teachers need to be open to change, he said. Molyneux recommends a peer-to-peer support group, where technologically skilled students can provide support for other students and faculty.

He said the main thing is the need for a symbiotic relationship between the students and teacher because teaching should be about student engagement, especially since the future of the world rests in the students’ hands.

“Predicting the future is a difficult task,” Molyneux said. “Some roads lead to innovation; some lead to blind alleys. The best way to invent the future is to do it yourself.”

Molyneux concluded by praising his Texan hosts and their state.

“I have never met such a hospitable state in all the visits I do,” he joked.