After moving face-to-face lessons online, we took a further step and brought digital gadgets into our classroom. The reasons were varied: lighter schoolbags (a fair point), less paper wasted on photocopies, and exam simulation for computer-based tests. However, things often get out of hand, causing more trouble than ease in our lessons and our lives. Let me share a few thoughts.
Digital books
As far as I know, you can't buy an ebook alone, so students have to purchase the paperback and activate the digital version. Last year I tried a Macmillan product and found that it had no downloadable listening tracks, so students had to use their digital book to do the listening at home. One of my students bought a second-hand copy (an environmentally friendly option) whose code had already been used. I had no way to share the audio or video tracks with her, so she missed out on all those tasks.
A legitimate question: why not do these tasks in the lesson? Because assigning reading or listening for homework saves classroom time, which can be used for interaction and grammar or vocabulary activities. This is the main idea of the "flipped classroom": students are introduced to a topic at home, and the real productive work happens in class.
Another unpleasant surprise with the same ebook: after a certain number of attempts, it offered a "Show answer" button. There was no trace of the student's original score, since new attempts improved the percentage and every answer turned green. The exercises had no didactic value: students simply clicked through the options and got a high score.
Another issue arises when the ebook doesn't provide the answer key, as with Cambridge products. At lower levels this isn't a problem, but from B2 onwards, sentence transformations can become tough. Digital books often accept only one answer, and other valid options get rejected by the system. You would think teachers could get access to the answer keys, but in my case customer service simply directed me to the local representative, who never answered my email. Schools are big business for them; one teacher is only… a pain in the neck.
It's also worth mentioning that these ebooks still have many technical flaws. In sentence-correction tasks, students must retype the whole sentence correctly, but there is a character limit, and if the sentence is longer, there is no way to type it in full. Ergo, there is no chance of getting the answer right. A simple issue to fix at IT level, but very annoying for the user.
Finally, let me take you on the calvary of activating a product. Cambridge Main Suite course books used in Italian schools come with two codes and require you to register first on an Italian site (e.g. Loescher), from where you are redirected to activate the book on a separate platform (bSmart, which actually mentions that you need to use your credentials registered on imparosulweb, another website). The second code is then for Cambridge One, which is another nightmare. I'm a teacher and a mother. As a teacher, I cannot activate a book for my kids: I have to open an account as a parent, register my kids and activate the books for them. However, they have to log in with their own usernames and passwords as students to work on the book, which I cannot see from my parent account. As a parent, I cannot activate and use a book either: I have to do it as a teacher. It is as confusing as it sounds. I ended up with a long list of codes just to use one book per level, and I regularly get emails reminding me to renew passwords or log in, otherwise my account will be cancelled. Which one?
Computer-based exams
Paper-based exams are becoming extinct. We can discuss whether that is right, but it definitely saves paper, ink and postal charges, spares the staff in charge of dispatching materials a lot of stress, and speeds up exam processing. My main question is at what age we should start this digitalisation. Cambridge Assessment has set a final date for the paper-based version of Key (A2), while Key for Schools continues in both paper-based and computer-based formats. It has also introduced Young Learners Digital for Starters (Pre-A1) and Movers (A1). I can't be the only teacher and mother doubting this decision. We are trying to keep our kids away from screens, yet we expect them to be computer-literate for the exam. My Starters and Movers are 8-to-9-year-olds without phones (thank heavens) and with very little "screen skills". So we are waiting for the digital versions of their books and starting to ask for tablets in our young learner classes. As much as I love technology, I don't feel comfortable with this change, either as a teacher or (even more so) as a mother.
And then there’s AI and homework, but that’s for next time.