Are We Doing Stuff with Technology or Are We Making a Difference to Student Learning
In a recent regional meeting, attendees had been asked to come prepared with their learning focus for the term as the basis for some development work using Web 2.0 tools. In the morning we had a sharing time of something effective they had been doing, some presentations from a few teachers on their specific use of web 2.0, a session with two students on their use of web 2.0 in their learning, and a tour of a couple of schools with a special character. Plenty to set the scene for the afternoon session where we said we would have “Hands on learning with web 2.0 to meet the needs of your work for term 3. Learn how to teach yourself and find out what resources are available online. Mentoring and buddy support will be available for this process. There will be some students and the facilitation team available to discuss technical/pedagogical aspects of your planning if you wish.”
So here we were with “time to play” that teachers so often say they need, and advice and guidance available, to focus on learning and learn how to use some tools for this purpose. But no-one that I spoke to had a context for their work for the term, two people had a specific web 2.0 tool they wanted to learn and got on with that, a few others explored the wiki links and some other web 2.0 environments and others just quietly left during the session.
I am left with my ongoing concern and frustration that teaching seems to have lost a strong focus on curriculum learning intentions, personalising learning and enabling the learners to be thinkers, creators and independent achievers. We seem to have become fixated on learning about Kid Pix or movie making or podcasting, and everyone using this graphic organiser and that inquiry process to gather information with a “so what” finale. But what about learning? And what about aiming to raise student achievement? Were these not the real intentions of the ICT PD programme? Isn’t all PD funded with the intention of improving learning and raising achievement?If learning is what we want to improve, then the learning intentions are where we need to start and not with the technologies. If we are focused on the learning needs of our class, then a one size fits all ladled out approach will not work as we will have different needs. Hence in this workshop the context for learning for the term was to be the determinant of the web 2.0 learning, leading to grouping by common needs and a guided discovery approach modelled for further learning. But it failed! When there were no contexts evident, I should have been sufficiently on my game to know that we needed to stop and work on that before proceeding. The lesson has been indelibly imprinted on my brain, and this blog post is about further sorting and hopefully drawing greater attention amongst teachers, principals and facilitators that we need to make a change! We need to talk about learning and learning and learning, and only then technology. We need to work with the end product in mind – what do we want our students to know and be able to do and how can we take them on that journey? What will success look like? How will they have moved their thinking and their performance at the conclusion of this learning period? How will they be more enabled and empowered for the future? Clusters also need to be more accountable for ensuring that they are more contributory during these meetings and do the preparation asked of them. Their attendance is funded by the cluster and there should therefore be an obligation to get the most out of the session by participating fully.
| Two days after this meeting I was in one of the teacher’s classrooms, and found that her context of study for the term was “structures”. We downloaded Google Sketchup, explored the self paced tutorials and could see their potential as a reading activity to provide a platform for discovery, problem solving, sharing of ideas and new learning, and development of community. Students would then be able to use this programme to draw and design 3D structures, view them from all angles and perspectives etc. The Drape logo programme was then set up for learning about angles and programming. We searched and found free animation software that could be used for moving the shapes and structures to find out more about their properties. |  |
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In another classroom, the teacher was preparing for a study of the Olympics. Here we worked to set up Netvibes on her computer to create a learning springboard for accessing athlete’s blogs, world time clocks to compare time zones, news feeds etc. Much was learnt about web 2.0 within half an hour after school, but focused around the specific needs of her programme this term. |
| Dr Michael Wesch of Kansas State University in his address “A Portal to Media Literacy” at Manitoba University captured in a YouTube video talked about the knowledge of everyone being greater than the knowledge of anyone – in others words the capitalising of group knowledge and endeavour to increase the learning through collaboration. Workshops and Web 2.0 allow us to unleash the power of everyone – but only if we are prepared to contribute and participate. |  |
So, as we reflect and review our progress in our ICT PD contract, let’s all look carefully at what we are really achieving, where we are focused and what we are assessing. Let’s make the focus of our next milestone reporting be about the changes to student learning rather than just the changes to use of technology. Let’s also look for opportunities to share, collaborate and celebrate together. And please let us be aware that the interactivity of the Internet, now allows us to collaborate more globally, and that this is going to be a major point of difference for the students in our classrooms in their future. Change and learning needs to start with ourselves. Grasp the moments and opportunities that you have, and don’t let them slip by.
