Technology Inertia

I sit and watch my son do his school work and wonder how he ever gets anything done. There he is with his phone texting his friend, his ear buds in listening to music, Facebook chat up, and theoretically doing an assignment. It’s a warm day so he’s gone outside to do get some air on the deck. Is this your picture of learning? No, neither is the view for many teachers or parents. I am convinced he is loitering, playing or at best just chatting. But then he comes a while later to show me the PowerPoint presentation he and his mates have created on World War 1 engineering advances and I find myself once again adjusting my thoughts and expectations.

My oldest son delivers pizzas for a living. At work he uses an online ordering system that tracks the flow of pizzas and lets them know when to make new dough. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) system lets them know when to order new stock, the administrative database produces their timesheets on the computer in the office, and are immediately signed off by the boss, and when he delivers a pizza the delivery address is entered into the car’s GPS, though he tells me he is getting to know the streets of Hobart so well that he can almost beat the GPS at finding his way!

Computers, servers, online, wireless access, G3 capability, notebooks, iPads, iPhones, GPS, ERPs, the NBN, how are you fitting into the brave new world of information and communication technology or ICT? If you are under 20 you have just about now turned off and are going onto the comics. But if you are over 20 or have had little to do with computers you are no doubt grimacing. Yet as a home educator your job is going to be to ensure that your children are prepared for this brave new world. The Australian Curriculum to be slowly implemented in schools, will require teachers to work towards the integration of these skills and tools in the learning programmes of children. And this is a scary requirement, because the focus moves the educator beyond the teaching of mere skills, to using these as tools – and not just word processing, internet and email. But spreadsheets, presentation software, databases, and so on.

If that scares you as a teacher – you are not alone. This is a massive cultural shift for many educators. In a survey conducted by the education Department of Western Australia, published recently, it was found that eighty two percent of teachers are not regularly using ICT in the classroom, suffering from I have called ‘technology inertia’. Of those teachers who are using ICT regularly (18%), most are doing so to improve computer skills and to find out about ideas and information. The basic suite of ICT applications ever used by more than 95% of teachers is comprised of word processing, Internet, email and file navigation. Only 9% of teachers have a high level of ICT competence and integrate it into their classrooms, most of those being younger male high school teachers. The reason many educators fail to use ICT to move beyond the basics, and seldom in the teaching of learning of the children in their care, is because they are not comfortable using it themselves, are afraid that the students already know more than them, and worry about all the things that can go wrong. There is an answer to these problems and that is to get comfortable, yes some of your students will know more, and things do go wrong.  So now that I have affirmed your worst fears, what can we do to move beyond it?

Getting comfortable

Let me begin by saying that the biggest problem is the cultural shifts, the way we do the things that have always done in just that way. As an educator you have probably fallen into a rhythm in how you teach your students. The use of technology requires you to change. In schools this change makes many teachers doubt who they are, what they have done and how they have always done it. Some leave, some refuse to change, some make adaptations, but not always good ones, and muddle along. The ones who embrace it become great teachers. Although they were probably already great teachers! But when changes, such as compulsory ICT integration, notebook programs or computer based admin systems, are implemented teachers often talk of not sleeping at night, and being scared to come in the morning. Dread was an overwhelming feeling. This was new to them, and that scared them. Change scares people. But with good tips, some techniques, a little know-how, and most importantly working together this can be addressed.

Things do go wrong

And yes things go horribly wrong! I love the comment by David Gefen, who said that ICT has always suffered from what NASA called as early as 1968 the “software crisis”: spending more than the allocated budget, missing the delivery dates for implementation of software packages, and having too many glitches. In my work in education systems, I work as a coach, facilitator and change agent, implementing technology systems, learning management systems, administration protocols and online learning. I love the work I do but I know that many people really struggle with it, and change is so relentless, especially technology changes. 

Your students will know more

Well, maybe some. Most know how to Facebook certainly, use a mobile phone, or maybe put together a word document. But many don’t know much more than you do – so you are about to embark on a wonderful journey of discovery together. And here I would encourage you to let go of control and work together to learn. This generation, the digital natives are not afraid of pushing buttons – you probably are, but as I always say the most powerful button is the off switch! If it goes pear shaped, start again! Most of all though, enjoy your time together as you explore the brave world of ICT and overcome your technology inertia.

(This post is an adaptation of a longer paper written for the HBLN, May, 2012)

A Question

"I have a group of bright students in my class, how do I set work for them that engages them, but doesn't have the feeling of being 'extra'?"

This was a question posed just recently - and my answer was of course, you differentiate the learning experiences in the classroom. My mind jumped immediately to lots of different 'activities' this teacher could do in their class. But actually, it has to go beyond the 'business' of class, it has to be how you structure the class, so that this group is engaged not just this once but all the time, and so that the rest are not left behind, or feel that they are missing out!

I seldom identify the 'gifted' children in my class - though I might occasionally identify those that have extra needs,depending on the need. I work on the premise that all children in my class can learn and will learn if I structure the work in such a  way that I give all of them opportunities to show what they can do, and give all of them little successes on the way. I do this by identifying learning styles, as I have explained in a previously blog. I think this first step is vital. It means I set work that meets learning outcomes in a variety of ways. It has been my experience that those that are 'gifted' in humanities have high vocabulary and literacy skills, whilst those that often are identified as having a variety of 'learning difficulties' are visual, kinaesthetic or interpersonal learners.

And I give my students choice, choices about what they do in the class, how much they do and often how they work. I think this is vital in teaching students to become independent learners.

Okay you want to know how I do this. Take the mundane activity of essay writing as an example. Often we just set an essay - give them a word limit and say go for it. Sometimes, if we know we have students at different levels of competence in our classes we might give them different word lengths. I do that too - I think that is a great idea. But first of all I give them choice. I let them know the target lengths required to reach a particular curricular requirement,  I am very specific here I bring the curriculum into the classroom, and then they chose - this essay might be shorter for one student, because they want to get it right, and then the next essay they might want to make it longer. It is of course in the detail of the essay that the difference really needs to exist.

When I do essay writing with my class I give them - right up to Year 10, and sometimes beyond, a graphic organiser. If you wish to write at the top level, my expectations are that you will include 3 paragraphs, and each will include 3 examples, which you have explained in detail. If on the other hand you wish to write a shorter essay, you will include 2 paragraphs and maybe only 2 examples in each. The graphic organisers set the levels and the expectations. I have included an example I have used on the right. This one is for preparing to write a persuasion essay.  We workshop the graphic organiser. we workshop the writing of the first example, sometimes in groups, sometimes as a whole class, other times in pairs. This way every child has success. At the end of an extended period of writing we share what we have.

For this I love the interactive whiteboard, as it gives us all the opportunity to put up our ideas and share them in a legible way with each other. Our school also uses a learning management system, so there are times, especially when we are at the beginning of an exercise that I will post the examples we have built as a class on that. It means students have access to this at home. At at the end, every child has an essay. And an understanding of how the process works, and an opportunity later in the year to maybe work at a higher level if they have found this process not too onerous and had success here. And the result is that each student in my class is supported, and each student in my class is challenged.

And my next task is not written. It may be spoken, drawn, acted, filmed, audio recorded, argued through debate - always multiple ways to show me that you have learned the specified outcomes.

Oh and don't sweat the graphic organisers, there are hundreds of thousands on the web for all sorts of writing - persuasion, cause and effect, y-chart, KWL's. Just Google it!

From My Journal

"My class is doing a project, they are all working. Imagine a light and airy room, one wall light lime green (not a good description) maybe a sort of light lime/avocado, anyway the other walls are white. Edged in Tasmanian oak. Tables spread about the room. Groups of four students. Laptops, poster paper, scissors, glue sticks some drawing, some writing, others researching. No one group doing the same, some outside the room in the main library area reading. Outside it is raining, raining, raining! Inside a quiet hum of busyness, activity, students engaged discussing latest world news as they look at the floods in Queensland, the bush fires in Perth, Japan. Someone is asking how much money they collected for the flood, someone else is trying to find the final death toll in NZ. I am enjoying their company. Especially when it is like this. 

Actually, I was a little late to class, when I walked in they were already working - a teacher's dream! Better than the nightmare I had a few nights ago - literally, of this same class, out of control. I woke up and laughed, hadn't had that one for years!"

How do you go from the beginning of the year to this space with your students. And this business did not mask a lack of engagement, but interest. The hum of activity did not mask dis-interest or of-task behaviours, but learning. I come back to my earlier question, how do you 'do differentiation'. 

One step at a time. In my previous post I left you with an understanding of the needs of the class, and this can get very overwhelming, especially to a beginning teacher who may consider they have to do it all - at once! But in fact you don't and shouldn't try, as you will be setting yourself up for failure. 

Begin by identifying the areas where you are comfortable making changes. Begin with small changes. Have you ever watched a road being built? Road builders often begin with the places where it is easy to build the road, so they can show progress. You can do this too in your classroom, photocopying bigger type, preparing worksheets in a bigger font, creating an assessment task at two levels, these all are small changes to make and help build success in your classroom, for the students but also for you!

Meanwhile road builders will also have a crew beginning on the harder places, the ones where they have to build the bridge. Those areas of the road take longer to build and often need extensive preparation. You must think of this in your classroom. Some changes, accommodations, modifications or adaptations will be easy to do, but others will require extensive planning, support and (horror) may even require you to do some research. Hmmm that leads me to a different thought ...