Yes

Keith Burt has been working in Drama Education for 20 years. Graduating from the Central School of Speech and Drama, he went on to get a Masters in Drama and Education at Middlesex University. An experienced and established Head of Drama and former Artistic Director of a Theatre Company, he is also the author of the website Burt's Drama.

Without question technology is a great thing for drama teaching. It is a great thing for teaching in general. As teachers we seem to tend to be sceptical of technology. A wave of new technologies in schools 10 or so years ago promised to make our lives easier but made things seem harder.

However, that was why we were all so disillusioned by technology. It promised solutions rather than tackling the problems. I was given an iPad with the idea that it would solve all my problems, but I didn't know what my problem was!

Pedagogy must be placed first when considering what technology to use and how to use it. For example, now I give my iPad to students who struggle to focus on the projector board, and they see what is on the projector through the iPad using an app called JoinMe.

A way of using technology to monitor that students are writing up their supporting notes is using a shared drive like Google Drive, OneNote or your own school's.

The use of a video camera on smart phones has revolutionised my approach to self and peer assessment. Students can film their performance any time, slow it down, re-watch it and use it to develop and improve their performance. Students can do this in their own time and with you alongside them.

My KS3 students love creating sound effects and soundscapes, which we record on my iPad and then play back during performance. It seems gives them comfort and confidence to perform when they know that their ‘live’ voice is not the only noise to be heard.

These are just some examples of what technology can bring to the Drama studio. But it is important to focus on the problem and ask if technology can be one way of answering those challenges that should underpin any use of technology in the Drama studio.

Zeena Rasheed has worked in the classroom, in pastoral and leadership roles in a range of schools. She has enjoyed teaching and learning primary, secondary and post-16. Zeena recently became Vice Chair of National Drama. Zeena studied at Bretton Hall, Central School, Homerton and achieved AST and Leadership certification.

As a natural Luddite I am surprised to be answering that ‘Yes’, technology has helped me teach Drama in a more exciting, relevant and smart way. It has made my planning and delivery more colourful and informed. I create much better resources. Being able to access TES, Facebook groups who share documents and dialogue, YouTube (e.g. videos from Splendid, The National Theatre, The Globe and Frantic Assembly) whole performances through Vimeo, and amazing websites like Kneehigh's Cookbook for example, is brilliant. I share resources and adapt others, I can find quotes and facts quickly rather than get the books, and I can refresh my own knowledge with superb resources from Gecko, Complicité, BBC Bitesize and exam boards without the time-consuming shelf-search. I can inspire learners with professionally produced trailers as well as a letter home for trips.

85% of the work I do with KS3 is practical, but at KS4 and KS4, more traditional study is enhanced, supported and deepened by digital resources and access to tech.

My powerpoints have made lesson structure explicit for learners. Having a resource that can be changed easily is much better than the box files, sheets on projectors and cumbersome handwritten lesson plans of old. Nostalgia makes me remember Drama lessons with fondness – the focus on our listening makes me slightly jealous of my teachers. Did they spend ages making handouts, powerpoints, intraweb links, files, worksheets and quizzes on PCs or mobile phones? No…but I do, almost every lesson.

I use music, constantly, online. I video performances and store them on the school's private ‘onedrive thing’ and use spreadsheets to make data-share easier. I word process, all the time, and making the quality resource that engages learners is so much easier as a result.

No

Lucy Miller studied Drama at UEA before taking her master's in Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance at York University. After completing her PGCE at Dr Challiner's Grammer School and the University of Reading, she has been teaching drama at Stowe School since 2014. She also runs the Arts Award.

As a Drama teacher, my own interest in theatre was undoubtedly ignited from seeing live productions. I have vivid memories as a child and teenager of squeezing into the back row of the upper circle of a musty old theatre, clutching a programme, my excitement steadily growing as the safety curtain made its lingering ascent. The experience of seeing actors performing live on stage is an exhilarating one that cannot be rivalled or replicated in digital form. Knowing that what you are witnessing is transient, unique and personal is all part of the magic.

My school regularly streams NT Live productions and I am grateful that my students and I have such easy access to an eclectic programme of stimulating and challenging theatre. However, I still think it is vital that pupils have ample opportunity to experience the real thing. How can a student claim any level of expertise in a field they have barely trodden? How can they fully appreciate form, style and genre, understand the aims of a creative team and form a critical opinion?

While the world goes social media mad and digital technologies take over our classrooms, drama has the unique privilege of being a subject that does not need technology to function. Yes, we can use projections to enhance our productions, tablets and iPads to equip and energise our classrooms. However, if Peter Brook can take an empty space and call it a stage, perhaps we also need to remind ourselves that an act of theatre happens simply when one person crosses a space and another watches. The very words ‘theatre’ and ‘drama’, by their origins and definitions define us as a subject in which watching and doing are at the very heart. So while technology can still have a large role to play in our teaching, we should also be proud to be a subject that encourages young people to switch off their mobile phones, be present and experience a little bit of magic.

Tim Armitage has been teaching Drama and directing youth theatre for 28 years and has been a head of faculty for 22 years. He teaches drama from year 7 to year 13. He likes to use music to inspire his teaching and a wide range of social issues and artistic stimuli. Teaching Drama is the most rewarding and tiring of jobs but the creative satisfaction and social harmony it generates keeps him going!

The beauty of theatre as opposed to film is all you need is two planks and a passion! As Peter Brook said ‘I can take an empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre.’ This is still the essence of theatre even in the age of digital streaming; where you can watch theatre in the cinema and YouTube tutorials teach you step by step how to do a chair duet.

If we're not careful we could forget about the need for live human interaction in the empty space and the essence of our ritualistic art form will be lost. As cinema tries to replicate reality with its 4D effects and the boundaries between art forms blur with installation style theatre and secret cinema events we need to remember that there is no substitute for what makes theatre theatre. A fixed view point from which to empathise and reflect on the human condition and the social structures we live in.

While we may marvel at the audio visual synergy of Curious Incident and a hologram Ariel in The Tempest does it actually move us and make us think more than real live actors in space and time? An over reliance on technology can lead to lazy drama teaching where we cease to demonstrate anything live and just hyperlink the experts on YouTube and copy them.

The whole virtual theatre experience has led to students being able to study Drama without going to the theatre. Although some exam boards have reneged on this it is still possible to study drama without experiencing the essence of the art form of theatre.

It is actors and teachers that make theatre and drama teaching special. Unless we hold the line, it may merge with other artforms and become just another instant entertainment phenomenon.