Educational Origami

I read this Educause publication on the issues facing higher education with interest. It is easy to draw parallels with Secondary teaching.

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EDU07332A.pdf 

Diana Oblinger and John Campbell identified 10 Teaching and Learning issues as they move to “Instruction 2.0”. These are echoed in Secondary and Primary education and in some cases I would hazard that these are larger issues in our sectors than in higher education.
The three key issues for me are:

2. Demonstrating improvement of learning
5. Providing tools to meet the growing student expectation
6. Providing Professional development and support for new audiences

2. Demonstrating improvement of Learning.

How do we measure the change, if there is any, in student learning. I have from my own experience seen improvements in students learning through the use and itegration of ICTs. There is improved  engagement and motivation. Students do enjoy using technologies, with this increased engagement they are better focused and motivated. There is a wide array of tools and media that are available to them and these provide variety with in the classroom. The improvement in work flow and work process provided by ICT’s is huge and of immense value.  However we must also balance this with the issues of authenticity and plagiarism, of distraction and off task behaviour. There have been studies that have shown us the positive changes from ICT integration. One School in the US ran two parallel cohorts one with a one to one laptop program and one with out. In this study there was a clear and discernible improvement across state and national qualifications in the one to one students compared to their matching cohort. (Harvest Park)

I believe that the integration of ICT’s into the classroom does bring improvements to learning. However measuring or quantifying this is a hard task, unless you can undertake a process similar to Harvest Park’s matched cohorts.

learning-with-technology-impact-of-laptops.pdf
5. Providing tools to meet the growing student expectation

The paper correctly points out that their students (in higher education) are the “Net Generation” or “Millennials” and have grown up in rich digital environments. This is even more relevant for those of us teaching in Primary and Secondary environs. Questioning our students quickly reveals the pervasive nature of cell phones, ipods etc. Some schools have tried to ban these but this is futile. Mavericks and  now leading edge innovators are now advocating the use of these in the classroom as tools for teaching and learning. Ewen McIntosh, David Warlick, Marc Prensky, Ian Jukes and co are leading this.

Again this returns to the matter of engagement and motivation. While these are crucial in Higher education, the students there have other motivators as well that we are missing in the primary and secondary sectors. Students have decided to attend their tertiary education and are paying for the privilege. These are powerful motivators. Our students are compelled to attend. How many of our courses lack relevance for our students, are compulsory elements of their learning?

We can not overlook the potential of entertainment activities for learning. How many homes in the 1st world have a games console of some shape, form or brand? The potential is huge – have a look at serious games – Global conflict – Palestine, and as yet really untapped. The gaming industry is larger than the film industry and in education it is underutilized.
6. Provide Professional development and support to new audiences.

The article states that 20% of the higher education faculty will be retiring in 10 years. I would speculate that these numbers probably apply across the board to education.  I continue to be disappointed with the level of ICT skills that I see in student or pre service teachers. I am yet to see a teachers college graduate emerging with a level of competence in the use and integration of ICTs into teaching practice.

The ICT PD Clusters, in New Zealand, appear to be entering the last round with the 2008 – 2010 clusters. While the program will have targeted most schools for ICT PD funding, it is naïve to think that because you have provided initial support that there is no longer a need for further clusters. I personally feel that the need is greater. Get them started and then build on the foundations you have established.

We don’t identify Olympic athletes of the future, provide them with basic training and support so they can show the potential they hold and then cut of their funding. No, we nurture and culture them, supporting and cherishing the potential.

But, what of the emerging technologies? Is there an expectation that all schools need to do is integrate the current technologies and this will suffice for the future? I applaud the vision that saw the cluster program established, but question the wisdom that sees it end.

In managing complex change one must have, according to Thousand and Villa, the following:

Vision + Action plan + Skills + Resources + Incentives = Change

Where are the resources (namely time to provide the training, skills or develop materials) or the skills going to come from when teachers college graduates are not well inducted into the integration of ICT and the ICT PD Cluster program is reaching a premature conclusion.

I would recommend to all that you download this paper and read it. Draw your own conclusions. All 10 issues will impact to some extend on primary and secondary schooling as well as Tertiary. Some issues are larger for us, and in some cases more urgent, certainly we have many more Millennials or “Net Gen” than the Universities currently do. How do we address the issue of appropriate technology for students, and providing support and training for staff on these tools. We can ignore it, but what a world we are missing out on when we do.

I look forward to your thoughts:

References and resources:
Campbell JP, Oblinger DG Et al, Tope-Ten Teaching and Learning issues, 2007, Number 3 Educause Quarterly.