The changing nature of teaching: The increasing complexity of tasks and tools

Side by side with the increasing wealth and diversity of information and the rapid advances in technology in today's world, is an increasing complexity in both the information-handling tasks that learners encounter in the classroom and the information-handling tools that are available for teachers and learners to use. In this bewildering arena, teachers, often without appropriate training, face a range of complex decisions as they try to match learners, tasks and tools. This paper explores, with the aid of six case studies, some of the issues that need to be faced as teachers grapple with these decisions, with particular regard to the significant attributes of tasks commonly encountered by learners engaged in enquiry or problem solving.