We are living in the 21^st Century and our society is a technologically advanced one. To be able to function effectively and successfully in our present society, you need to be digitally literate.

There are people who may choose to eschew the technological aspects of our modern society either for philosophical/religious reasons or by lifestyle choice or simply because they have lived much of their life without such technology and do not see the need or have the desire to change. That is fine, it is a matter of personal choice but let us not be under any misapprehension that for a child not to be educated in the use of modern technology would put them at a huge disadvantage. Indeed, it could be argued that such a child could be seen by peers and by society in general as a social misfit.

So why should it be that many within the Free School movement eschew, even it seems to the point of despising, technology? Could it be simply an issue of cost or could it be, in my opinion, a misguided misunderstanding of educational technology?

The issue of cost is an interesting one. In modern state schools, after buildings and staffing, ICT is the next highest cost in most state schools. In the present UK proposals for Free Schools, as far as I understand it, the schools are to be run as a charitable status. Therefore, anything that reduces initial and ongoing running costs would be welcome and most advantageous. Any proposed Free School would need to have and maintain its buildings, it will also need to recruit and retain staff. So it is clear that there may be little room for a charity to manoeuvre in its budgets for the two most expensive items. Which makes ICT very vulnerable in any cost reducing exercise.

It would be true, though, that the costs of ICT provision in recent years have escalated, particularly where schools have gone for huge installations involving a number of computer suites and campus wide cabling. This type of approach, though, has been very much an ‘end of the 20^th century’ type approach. More modern approaches involve greater use of ‘personal’ technology, which allows greater flexibility and more scope for financial manoeuvring.

Indeed, it may soon come the time when every child goes into school with their own personal technology already and both expect and demand to be able to use it in their learning. If such a time does come then any school, whether state, Free or independent will need to be able to respond and adapt.

I am aware, as I’m sure we all are, that there are some proponents of Free Schools who are quite vehemently anti educational technology. However, everyone appears to agree that accountability for the education in Free Schools lies very firmly with the parents. It is the parents, as consumers, who have the choice and the right to decide which school their child should attend. I ask you, as a parent would you send your child to a school that did not make use of modern technology in its teaching?

We also know the power of children as consumers. They may not always have the money to make purchases themselves but they sure know how to let their parents know what they want! I am sure there are many many children who would not be happy in a school where they could not use technology. I am sure that these children would let their parents know their unhappiness and let them know which school they should send them to, if any!

So let none of us who advocate or support Free Schools, be in any doubt that Free Schools need technology. Equally, let those of us who are proponents and supporters of educational technology be prepared to support educational technology in Free Schools at every stage of their development. For if schools are built and run without effective technology, it will only be the learners who suffer.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Michael Gove’s free schools face costly challenge | Michael White’s political briefing (guardian.co.uk)
• Swedish free schools ‘low’ impact (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Swedish ‘free schools’ fail to improve results (telegraph.co.uk)
• The year I set up a free school (independent.co.uk)
• Michael Gove ushers free schools into shops and houses (guardian.co.uk)
• Just a simple question … to begin with (dougdickinson.co.uk)
• ‘Free schools’ invitations issued (news.bbc.co.uk)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Flipping Textbooks
• Using a Visualiser with the Visually Impaired
• World Book Web and Virtual Libraries
• What Matters Most in Educational Technology
• Technology Not Doing What it Should be Doing?

This entry was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 09:16 and is filed under Classroom Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.