Published: 02.05.08

Technology, creativity and teaching in our times

What are teachers for in a so-called 'knowledge society'? What do we need to learn these days? How do learners, teachers and knowledge interact with each other and which tools might help or hinder us?

These are questions that Professor Avril Loveless will address at a lecture on Thursday 29 May, at 6:30pm at Mayfield House Lecture Theatre, Falmer.

Over the last 30 years, Avril has worked in education in a wide range of settings and phases, including nursery schools and universities, from day courses to doctorates, in Hackney to Hokkaido.

Digital technologies, from desktop computers to mobile devices, have played a significant role in the life and work of teachers. They have challenged teachers to rethink where, what and how they teach, but they have also wasted time with fruitless tasks and technical hitches says Avril.

"We have been bewitched by the possibilities of the technologies and bothered when these have not been realised in our measures of educational success," adds Avril.

"I suggest that bewilderment is a good state of being, and requires us to ask different questions in order to find new paths. Teaching is not a technical activity, but a creative endeavour embodied in people who are in relationship to others and to ways of knowing. We are challenged to be critical and creative in our changing times. Bewilderment may lead us to unexpected people and places."

Throughout her teaching in primary schools, and working in teacher education in London and Brighton, Avril has tried to make connections between technology and creativity, practice and theory, teachers and learners.

She has written many books and articles for teachers, students, researchers and policy makers, including The Role of ICT, and collaborated with colleagues editing ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum: Subject to Change and ICT and the Primary School.

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered: technology, creativity and teaching in our times
Thursday 29 May 2008 at 6.30pm
Mayfield House Lecture Theatre
University of Brighton
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9PH

All welcome - if you would like to attend please email events@brighton.ac.uk.