Listen to Margus Pedaste’s interview on Edtech podcast

What did the Estonian educational system learn from the COVID-19-induced distance learning period last spring and how to use that knowledge in the future? Margus Pedaste, our professor of educational technology, took up the topic in his interview for the international educational technology podcast Edtech.

According to Pedaste, many teachers initially tried to use the same methods in distance learning as they do in contact learning, giving their students independent assignments and expecting answers. Nevertheless, it occurred that digital distance learning requires a different approach. Teachers had to increase their co-operation and only give students meaningful tasks, in order to not overload them with work.

During the period, self-regulated learning skills became more important for both students and teachers, Pedaste added. The teachers discovered that some students had more difficulties finding the motivation to study than they did in classrooms. Furthermore, not all students could associate digital learning with positive emotions, which could have however improved their learning process.

On the other hand, digital learning opened up the possibility to collect digital data about the students’ study practices and create open learner models. Pedaste believes this could pave the way towards a more personalized and collaborative approach to learning, as smartwatches and web cameras could also be employed to collecting data to further understand the emotions associated with learning.

In addition to Margus Pedaste, the 221^st episode of Edtech, “Future Tech and Trends” included professionals of educational technology from the UK, India, Switzerland and the USA. The podcast is available for listening on this address: https://theedtechpodcast.com/future-tech-and-trends/. The podcast is in English.