Educational Origami

I must say at the outset that I do not suffer from “one size fits all” syndrome nor am I afflicted with the dermal irritation of poor support. Unfortunately, I have seen too many people who suffer with these tragic and entirely preventable conditions.

 “One size fits all” is a model for ICT support that is prevalent in many schools in New Zealand and overseas. “One Size fits all” is capably aided and abetted by Operating systems that have an All or nothing rights model, by technicians who were employed because they were cheap and are grossly overworked and by out sourced support where the focus is bang for THEIR buck rather than partnership and education.

 So what is “One size fits all”? Its where all users in a school environment are provided with identical setting, rights and restrictions (usually more of the latter than the former) regardless of their ability, role or capacity. More often than not with the limited model provided by Windows it is a locked down computer. I know of schools where the staff can not even see C: Drive let alone be able to install a printer or connect at home to the internet.

 Our children are our hope

 In a system that should be encouraging innovation, creativity, adaptability and experimentation this model represents the arch nemesis of all these things. In a country with a focus on the becoming a “knowledge economy” this represents a hurdle before our hope even reaches a position where they could shape the knowledge economy.

 So what causes this tragic and preventable disease to linger and persist? Why hasn’t a vaccine been developed to inoculate us from this infection? The causes are to be honest easy to see:

• Out sourcing companies with out true partnership with the school for education
• Technicians that are so overwhelmed they restrict use out of self defense.
• Technicians selected for budgetary constraints rather than experience, expertise and adaptability
• Operating systems that are woefully inadequate in delivering distributed rights
• Lack of vision or appreciation of the teacher role or of any innovative process
• Management who endorse by inaction, lack of vision or lack of understanding a one size fits all policy

 For the out-sourced ICT support provider, this is a simple case of economics, reduce the support needs and calls, minimise my imaging variations, maximise my return and profit by locking down the computer so tightly that nothing breaks because nothing works. These suppliers need to spend a day in the shoes of a teacher and develop a true partnership for education not a one sided one for profit.

On site staff, the technicians, are as often as not selected because they fit into a limited salary slot rather than for their expertise or ability. The old saying “pay peanuts, get monkeys” applies here. Does your school offer a salary package that will induce IT professionals to leave their high 5 figure paying job to come and work in a school with the myriad of challenges this environment presents or do they offer a $30K to $40K package and complain about the poor service?

In self defense, these technicians, often working at a service ratios of over 100 computers to 1 technician lock the machines down to survive. A heavily restricted machine is so limited in what it can do that and  because it does nothing it doesn’t break.

 The lack of vision and appreciation of the teacher role goes beyond the out sourced company or the on site technician, it also reaches school management, many of whom have not been in a classroom for years. How do they know how to use and adapt these technologies? How do they know what works on the web and what doesn’t?

 
Strangely enough I do see hope from a strange source – The Warehouse – recently I was wandering the aisles looking for something and I asked a staff member, packing shelves, for assistance. I was surprised when I read the name badge that this was the manager of the store. Curious, I asked why she was here, and her reply was simple, straight forward and incredibly useful – ALL staff, whether they are accountants, managers, HR , whatever must spend 1 day a fortnight (I am pretty sure it was 1 per fortnight) working on the shop floor. What a difference it would make to a school if the principals had to teach a class, a regular, scheduled, you can’t miss it, nothing is more important that this, you have too be punctual class.

One size fits all approach too ICT does a number of things:

• It brings everyone down to the lowest common denominator
• It places control in the wrong hands
• It stifles creativity
• It limits innovation
• It halts experimentation
• It increase frustration

 I have seen teachers so passionate about ICT that they have bought their own laptops to avoid the draconian measures enforced in many schools. They paid for these themselves so they could have the freedom to experiment, the room to innovate, the opportunity to create and the chance to adapt.

 

Does your school have a policy about encouraging creativity? Does this policy end when ICT begins? Does your school’s ICT policy support early adopters, innovators and god forbid MAVERICKS? Is creativity and imagination limited to standard, uniform software and hardware? Do your management team and IT staff actively support innovation by allowing freedom for early adopters and mavericks?

 

Could people like David Warlick, Seymour Papert, Gary Stager, Wesley Fryer, Derek Wenmoth, Will Richardson and the other leading and cutting edge pioneers of ICT integration have done this if they had been restricted to operating certain approved and “safe” programs, being unable to install software or hardware, being unable to connect to the internet at home or a cybercafe.

 Kelvin was right – things have to change and I am one of the lucky ones. At my school there are several sizes.