Educational Origami

Are your senior classes objectives focused on exam results and qualifications? The answer is almost certainly yes, and with good reason too. This is the stepping stone to the world for them. However, often we hear this examination focus used as an excuse for limiting the level of ICT integration into the senior  curriculum.

The examination system is geared to hand written scripts, inspite of the fact that most people do not use pen and paper in their work. When was the last time you received a hand written letter? I must confess that I did use pen and paper the other day – I was trialing an OCR pad which has a standard paper pad, a ink based battery powered pen that links to a slate underneath the pad. This converts (with a good degree of accuracy too) my handwritten notes into digital text.

This is a drawback to ICT integration, but with most assessment systems including increasing volumes of assignment and internal assessment bases components, the opportunity to integrate ICTs into assessments is increasing.

Teachers often will ask the question “why should I do this when I have been successfully teaching for 20 years and achieving good exam results” . This is a valid question but one that also has valid answers. Here are some that I can think of.

• Our role is more than just exam preparation it is preparing our students for life long learning which will contain vast and ever increasing volumes of ICT
• To go Prensky or Jukes for a moment – Many of our students are digital natives, even those who have not had wide exposure to computers have a digital component by their exposure to high paced and high speed media like television (Neo Millennial Learning styles). They thrive on rapid information access, moving images and sound, they stagnate on the static. (digital Natives I & II)
• Our students do not learn in a “one size fits all” or “Chalk and talk” model. They are Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory, read/write or multimodal learners, and further this changes from class to class and teacher to teacher(VARK)  As teachers we MUST provide them with variety to maintain their attention and touch their preferred learning style. ICTs provide a mechanism for this.
• There are a vast array of resources available via the digital medium that are not available in a chalk and talk model. We all would love to have field trips to areas and places we study but this is limited by time and financial constrains but we can do this virtually. Can we easily visualise and manipulate atomic particles or DNA on a blackboard, but we can with learning objects. Look at the selection of videos on
  • teacher tv
  • Youtube
  • Teachertube
  • google video
• Collaboration, communication, debate and activism is often limited to the confines of the classroom or perhaps the school in a traditional model, but with the use of ICTs we can converse with fellow students  in their language and they in ours via video and audio conferencing. We can debate social and ethical issues, current affairs and events. We can participate in global events, not from the  sideline of a News article or newspaper report but from the leading edge of action, contribution and involvement.
• Key to the use of ICT in the senior school is motivation, engagement, involvement, captivation and enjoyment. Do our students enjoy these tools, does the use of ICTS (and I am talking of more than word processing) motivate,  engage, involve and captivate them. YES. Does a happy, motivated, engaged, involved and captivated student learn more, retain more, understand better, take ownership and internalise concepts and processes. Yes.

But what is the cost? Will they lose some of their hand writing skills – Possibly? Financially can schools afford it? Can they afford not to provide an education that is relevant and current? Will students vote with their feet and leave? The emergence of the OLPC, Intel classmate, Asus Eee do provide an alternative model to labs. They may lack the power to do high end multimedia but for word processing, brain storming, collaboration, mind mapping, image editing, internet access, presentations, media viewing, data processing and visualisation, blogging, emailing, discussing, debating, twittering, basic desktop publishing, authoring, searching,  contributing, podcasting, printing, entertaining, social bookmarking and networking they are fine.