21st Century Education & Learning Environments 04 Sep 2007 07:33 pm
Poking the fire while it is hot…
Well I have hit a huge response on the previous post – Probably a record for my blog. While the fire of thought provoking conversation is still burning I thought I would write a few more thoughts around the idea of how new technical tools are integrated into schools. I had the wonderful pleasure last year seeing many different schools around the country and in other parts of the globe. I saw so many amazing examples of technology being used effectively, but also saw some tragic examples of money being wasted. With this in mind as well as the thoughts from the previous post I want to throw some ideas around.
Who should control and make decisions on technology integration into schools?
This is the main area that I see schools completely stuffing up time and time again. For me this is simple… Curriculum and sound pedagogical thought and procedure should always drive technology integration. Too many technical departments and System Administrators etc etc are making decisions that ultimately impact on effective learning environments. The role of our hard working techies is vital in any education environment but when decisions are made on technical matters, not educational concerns I sit and wonder what the point really is. Too many schools use technology as a show and tell tool for the community – in a desperate hope that parents and others in the community will think more highly of the service they provide. Hence why I think IWB’s are sweeping the country as the next fad – these tools are easy to support by tech departments and they are a great show and tell tool. They are not connected devices and they do not cause problems on the network infrastructure. If an IWB breaks down it doesn’t bring the system to a halt – but there is a risk with tools such as student laptops. Perhaps a reason why more schools are not investigating what are seen as “risky” programs? Once again I understand the pressures techies work under (my brother is one at a school not far from me) and I can see a huge problem rising in the challenge schools face keeping good technical staff. Schools cannot compete with corporate wage rates. I had a close friend who was working in the tech department of a very wealthy school not too long ago – He left with in 2 years of being in the job as the corporate pay offers were just far too tempting…. Question here – How do we keep the techies that support the educational environment, while maintaining complete decision making control over the whole technology integration process?
-
What about the client?
While I completely disagree with the concept as teachers working for a client (parents paying fees etc etc) and feel that this is a philosophy of thought that is destroying the credibility of professional educators, I do think we need to think about the client as in the student/learner and their needs. I enjoyed reading a recent article about the 16 year old that just cracked the 84million dollar pornography filtering system created by our Government. The journalist asked him what he thinks needs to be done in this digital age. He suggested we hold student forums where students can talk about their worries and concerns about education in the digital age. What a great idea, I would love to be involved with a conference run by students telling me as an educator what matters to them. I would enjoy hearing how they feel I could better engage them and which technologies make a difference to their learning (an example of this can be downloaded as a podcast from Education.au event recently). We need to stop thinking about what parents want and start looking objectively at what students feel will help them learn and try and match this with the research that has been done on effective learning technologies.
Picture this – student is studying in the school library for a series of Biology exams, he really enjoys his class but didn’t understand the way his teacher and the text book has explained the issues around gene therapy – So the student heads off to Andrew Douch’s Biology podcast and syncs some of his classes on the topic to his ipod. Our student then puts on his ipod to listen to Mr Douch’s explanation of the topic – What would happen to this student in most schools I have seen? Well he would be reprimanded for using his iPod at school in the library – iPod’s are contraband… student is issued with detention and gets frustrated because the teacher is unable or unwilling to see what is really going on.
Can I propose a student forum concept – how could we organise such an event?
on 27 Sep 2007 at 1:39 pm 1.Tim Goree said …
Regarding who should make decisions on technology integration in schools:
I think it is important to realize that it takes a village on this matter. When you refer to “curriculum and sound pedagogical thought”, who exactly are you referring to? I agree with your sentiment, but my experience has shown that some of the most illogical and wasteful technology programs to date have been conceived and ramrodded through the system by those who live only in the very tiny world of “curriculum and sound pedagogical thought”.
I am not intending to be adversarial with this post, and I agree that about 97% of the technology heads in the educational industry are very unconcerned about the true goals of the system within which they work (that would be student learning, I hope!). However, I believe that the ultimate relief for the problems identified in your post will come from two things:
1) The recognition by technologists in the educational realm that their job is ultimately about enhancing student learning. This recognition SHOULD drive them to become students of the educational process, which SHOULD begin to give them a legitimate say in how technology fits in to the educational process.
2) The recognition by teachers and certificated administrators that “curriculum and sound pedagogical thought” is not rocket science, and that those without masters degrees and doctorates may have extremely valid ideas within that realm.
I submit that it is more likely (given the desire) that a technology person could become an expert in the art of teaching than a teacher could become an expert in the use and configuration of technology. There is a reason, after all, that you find a shortage of technology folks in this arena.
I’d love to see technology staff taking more of an interest (and ownership) in the over all mission of the schools that they work for. I’d really love to see administrators and teachers encouraging technology staff to take that ownership. Who knows, we might actually see sharp technologists stick around longer if they actually bought in to the overall objective. We do, after all, work in the most noble of professions…
on 05 Dec 2007 at 1:04 pm 2.Tim W said …
As an IT guy for a school, I’d love to see the school develop the requirements for such a system. In my experience, academia says, “It’s technology, let the IT guys handle it.” instead of doing any research whatsoever. They simply see (or more often hear) that a competing school is doing it, so they have to have it too. No one considers the ongoing cost of maintaining these new toys. Like I said, I am an IT guy and I understand computers and networks, but this is audio/video/presentation stuff and I have a huge learning curve for this.
I’m glad I found your blog though. It’s good to see someone asking the hard questions about using technology.