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6 Ways ICT Can Improve Education

Monday, February 13th, 2012

150x100 6 Ways ICT Can Improve Education
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It seems to me that there are 6 ways in which we can use ICT to improve education. I make no claims for the originality of these ways, indeed the first 3 have come from a forum discussion with Peter Twining on the Vital website (you may need a login to see the Vital page).

These 6 areas are;

  1. Support – Using ICT to allow us to do things more effectively or efficiently but without changing the fundamental curriculum or pedagogic approach
  2. Extend – Using ICT to present things in new ways or using ICT to access resources which would otherwise be difficult to access
  3. Transform – allowing us to do new or different things that would not be possible without the technology and thereby changing the curriculum or pedagogy
  4. Engagement – involving learners in activities through the motivational influence of technology or the functional use of technology (e.g. access from home as well as school) or social engagement (e.g. with fellow learners or between families and school)
  5. Inclusion – using ICT to overcome learner disabilities or disadvantages
  6. Improvement – saving time, being able to enrich a learning experience or using ICT to make a learning outcome possible which might not otherwise have been possible.

I claim no great originality in any of these but it does suggest to me that we might have the basis of a framework or matrix by which staff or institutions can record their use of ICT and the impact it has.

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Five and a Half Reasons to Introduce ELearning into High Schools

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Five and a half reasons to introduce elearning into high schools.

Up to now, elearning has been the preserve of tertiary education (colleges, universities) and industry. I want to explore reasons why it could be useful in secondary education as well. I have called this post 51/2 reasons (5 and a half reasons, not five half-reasons) because I’m not fully convinced the final reason is a valid one.

Before I start, I feel a need to clarify what I mean by ‘eLearning’. It has become clear to me that there is some confusion over the term as different people take it to mean or to include somewhat different things. My definition of elearning is largely learning that is done online. In this definition, I do not include using computers and software in a classroom as part of a lesson. To me that is what I have been doing and promoting for years; it is now the norm in teaching(*) whereas online learning is not, or not yet, part of the norm.

So, what are these 6 (or 5 and 1/2) reasons we should introduce elearning into high schools?

1. Teaching less popular subjects and/or additional subjects. Let’s say you have a group of students who want to learn economics or parapsychology or African biology but you’ve not got a teacher or a classroom or a timetable slot to allow this, what can you do? The traditional answer would be that you don’t offer those subjects and tell your students to pick another subject, which also risks potential students opting for another school which does offer those subjects. Elearning offers the opportunity to provide such courses in a number of possible ways, such as linking with another institution and sharing teaching resources online, buying-in courses provided by outside educational bodies or sharing a teacher from another institution. In this way, elearning can enable a school not only to offer a wider range of subjects but also to make the school more appealing for potential students.

2. Teaching difficult to reach students. There are a range of students who might be considered ‘difficult to reach’ and for whom elearning may hold some potential. Let’s consider students who cannot physically attend school or who can do so only on a restricted basis, such as traveller children, sick or hospital students, young carers and excluded students. while these students remain on the attendance books of a school, the school has a responsibility for their education. Where such students acnnot attend school, then elearning has the potential to reach them and to provide them with a level of education despite their chosen or enforced circumstances.

3. Sharing teacher capacity. We know that teachers are expensive but also important. Yet schools cannot always ensure the availability of quality teachers able to provide teaching across all subject areas. Schools may experience either temporary or long-term teacher shortages. Elearning has the potential to mitigate this by allowing teachers to teach groups in different institutions. So a school with a teacher or teachers particularly skilled in teaching a particular area or subject, say advanced calculus, can offer the teaching services of a teacher to teach advanced calculus, online, to students at another school which does not have such a teacher. In return for part payment of the teacher time or for the the second school offering online teaching in another area or subject. Of course, this arrangement need not apply only to the sharing of a physical teacher but also to any range of teaching resources a school may have to offer online which another school may lack.

4. Alternative to Homework. I know this is a thorny issue but homework in its traditional sense is largely an out-dated concept which, even in its heyday, rarely reflected sound educational practice. Traditionally, homework, where the teacher remembered to set it, usually involved reading a passage from a book, writing an essay, doing textbook exercises, all of which usually reflected or repeated what had been taught in class and rarely provided the student with extra insight or learning. Elearning has the potential to offer students much more than this by becoming an extension to class teaching and an enhancement to student learning. The only caveat is, of course, that the student should have access to online resources out of school hours.

5. Timetable flexibility. Anyone who has ever had to face the task of timetabling or scheduling will know it can be a nightmare to match subjects, teachers, classrooms and groups of students together. By incorporating elearning options within subjects, a school may be afforded greater flexibility in its timetabling. A class does not always require a teacher to supervise or lead elearning, therefore one group of students studying a subject may do so online for a period while another group is led by a teacher.

6. Saving money. This is the half reason. I know some people in schools will jump at an opportunity to save money and I’d sympathise with them if I had responsibility for budget control. However, I’m not fully convinced that elearning will always be money saving. Sure, providing learning online can be cheaper than paying for a teacher but there is also a lot of finance and time that has to be supported in setting up online facilities, developing online resources and monitoring/maintaining systems and these should not be overlooked in a rush to engage in elearning. Nevertheless, in a long term, elearning may have the potential to save money and if anyone can achieve this and maintain a delivery of quality learning then I’d be more than happy to talk to them!

Bonus. Extra Support Learning. We all recognise that there are some students who have the potential to learn but who learn more slowly than their peers or who sometimes need materials presented in certain ways in order to better grasp their significance. Such groups of students may include those with special needs but not exclusively so; it could also include those with language barriers and those with attention difficulties. For such groups, elearning has the potential to offer extra learning opportunities in addition to their regular class-based sessions. Elearning also has the potential to offer resources in particular ways or formats (such as audio podcasts) for students who find it easier to learn in such ways. Even for your high-flying students, elearning has the potential to offer extra learning support in which to extend their thinking and knowledge within the subject.

I’m sure there may be many other reasons or benefits of elearning in secondary education, if you know of any, please add them as a comment.

 

 

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Do Learners want Teachers?

Monday, December 12th, 2011

300px Teacher Do Learners want Teachers?
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Do Learners want Teachers?

It seems a strange question, doesn’t it, but do learners want teachers?

Over recent years there has been a shift in emphasis away from teaching and teachers toward learning and learners. This has been to such an extent that even a major quango spent thousands changing one of its departments from Teaching and Learning to Learning and Teaching.

I will say, though, that I think the change in emphasis is justified; learning is more important than teaching.

A teacher in a school can teach and teach as much as they can but if the people they are teaching do not learn, then the teacher has been wasting time; the role of the teacher is to enable and ensure that learning takes place. Of course, any and every teacher knows this and also knows different strategies and approaches to facilitate learning. At the end of the day, a school is judged on how/what the learners have learnt (or parts of what they have learned) rather than on what teaching took place.

Increasingly, we hear people say that the learner is responsible for their learning and that the role of the teacher is to guide the learner through their learning. The teacher standing in front of the class is something that is frowned upon nowadays, rather the teacher should be at the side of the learner to give support and direction; this is the ‘sage on the stage’ versus ‘the guide at the side’ argument.

While we can accept that the role of the teacher is changing, that learning is now seen as more important than teaching and that the learner now has responsibility for their learning, does this mean that teaching or the teacher are no longer valued?

I think not. It still seems that people want teaching and value good teachers. Let us consider an example; if you wanted to learn something completely new and, all things, such as price, being equal which approach might you choose? You could choose to learn from an online course, from text books or attend classes led by a teacher/tutor/facilitator.

Most people would appear to opt for an approach that involves a teacher over a completely self-learning approach. Even if the approach had just one session with a teacher, it would appear to be preferred over an approach that has no teaching element. It would seem, therefore, that learners do value being taught or, at least, having some teaching input.

Consider the training courses you have been on, though, and ask yourself what have been the most valuable parts of those courses. The chances are that you will say the most valuable parts have been those times when you have been allowed to trial, play, or explore for yourself. These have probably been the times when you have been able to learn what you have wanted to learn or to learn what appears most relevant to you or your work.

Other valuable parts may have occurred when you found yourself ‘lost’ or had made a mistake and called upon the teacher to help you fix the situation and to avoid it happening again.

How many of us, also, have been on a course that we initially thought would be a ‘waste of time’ only to have new light or new possibilities created because of the enthusiasm, passion or skill of the teacher?

So the value of having a teacher would appear to lie in having an expert on hand, in having someone to at least introduce an area of learning to us and in having someone open our eyes to new possibilities. So while it may be clear that the nature of teaching and the role of the teacher may be changing, it is also clear that teaching and good teachers are also highly valued.

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Selling Your Thing to Schools

Monday, November 7th, 2011

3702070428 eee4c59a79 m2 Selling Your Thing to Schools

Ten tips for companies or individuals trying to sell to schools.

 

I am surprised at how often I am asked for tips or advice on selling things to schools. I am quite open in saying that ‘selling’ is not really my area but I guess that calling yourself a ‘consultant’ suggests ‘salesman’ to the minds of many people.

 

So, for anybody, individual or company, interested in selling their thing to schools, here are my tips and advice;
1) Make sure your product or service is relevant. The main purpose of schools is to educate pupils, so make sure your product is educational or can be used in teaching or learning. There is also a good amount of administration that goes on in schools, you might feel your product or service fits more with this. That’s great but first please make sure that your product doesn’t create more administrative work for staff but fits in with current administrative needs and, ideally, makes the tasks easier.
2) Understand the role of technology in schools. Be wary of the belief that the role of computers in schools is to ease the burden of admin for teachers so that they have more time for teaching; this is a lie. At no time have computers resulted in less work for teachers and many teachers are fearful that they create more work.
3) Get to know your customers. I would have thought that this would be central for all salesmen but what do I know! You are not really selling to ‘schools’ you are selling to a person, get to know that person and their job. Take the time and effort to listen and understand them an what they are trying to do but, and this has to be a careful balance, do not waste their time.
4) Build a reputation and a track record. I guess reputation is essential in education as in other fields. It is difficult to explain the success of a company such as RM in education. How can a company that sells overpriced, underspecified computers to schools do so well? You will find few people in the field of educational technology who have a good word to say about RM, in fact many people see them as ‘whipping boys’ to be slagged off at any opportunity. Yet, the company has done extraordinarily well in English educational technology and that is mainly down to the fact that people know them as an educational company with a track record of working in the education sector. If you do not have a track record of supporting and understanding education, how can you expect your customers to take you seriously.
5) Offer something for nothing. ‘Education’, unlike other ‘markets’, is not going to use your product or service to help it make money, nor is educational computing about saving money. So there is little financial motive for schools to adopt your ‘thing’. This is perhaps the biggest difference between education and other areas such as business or commerce and it is one which will trip up many companies trying to sell into education. Schools like to try products before they buy them, which is not unreasonable, especially as it is unlikely to be the user or person you sell to who will benefit but, hopefully, the pupils they teach. So always be prepared to offer trial periods and consider the ‘freemium’ models which offer a certain level of functionality at no cost and improved features with a price.
6) Ask yourself who your customers really are. Schools are mainly buildings, they don’t buy anything so trying to sell to them is a waste of time. So ask yourself who is your thing for? It could be for teachers, it could be for admin staff or maybe it’s for the pupils. In which case try to tailor your promotional material and your marketing efforts for the right people. Obviously, if your product is for pupils, then schools will not view you favourably if you try to market to them through the school but kids aren’t always at school so try to market to them (or their parents) at home or elsewhere where kids hand out (do they still use that phrase?)
7) Don’t Cold Call. You can try but, to be honest, it is likely to be a very frustrating experience. Teachers are very busy people and usually haven’t got time to talk to you on the phone. Heads, Deputies and Heads of Departments may have a bit more time for you but first, you’ll have to get through the receptionist, who’s probably been told not to allow any cold callers through! Email may be a bit better but don’t expect a reply immediately! So if you can’t cold call, you have to find other ways to market your products; be imaginative, attend educational events, look to support or sponsor events, maybe arrange your own events (and see 8 below)
8) Show your face and your logo. Get yourself known within education circles, attend education events, network with staff or even try running your own events for education. There really is little to beat networking and getting to know potential customers by face. Don’t always be selling, though, remember you’re there to get to know people and make contacts.
9) You do have a website don’t you? It is expected that anyone and everyone will have a website nowadays, and a facebook page and a twitter account. In fact, some people will visit a company’s website for evidence that the company is genuine, is active and for background information. So do make sure your site is up to date and that as much information as a customer may need is available via the site and via your facebook page and also make sure that you are active on twitter (e.g. make sure any twitter enquiries are answered promptly).
10) Hey, where are you going? Don’t sell a ‘thing’ then move on with the money in your pocket. Nobody likes this, including schools. Keep promoting your products and services to your new customers, let them know ways of using your thing and the ways other people are using it. Make the school feel valued for having bought into your thing and often they will promote it for you!
So that’s my ten tips, if anyone has any more please let me know.

 

 

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Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

Monday, September 5th, 2011

3533040651 fb51975a76 m Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

There was a post on the inaugural #ukedchat twitter debate posted by @JamesClay which read

“Before you answer how, you need to really answer and explain the why you should be using tech in education.”

Unfortunately, I was travelling home on a rather crowded train and was unable to fully follow the online debate but this post caught my attention and made me think;

“Do we really need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons?”

I go into schools often and also meet other teachers on training sessions. I often meet teachers who do not use technology or who use it only a little. It is clear, though, that each of them know that they could and should be using technology or using it more.  Quite often, these teachers will express their worries that they’re not using ICT and that they sometimes feel their class are missing out compared to pupils in a different class.

In reality, the ‘why’ teachers use educational technology is well established and accepted, even among those teachers who rarely or reluctantly use it. I don’t feel it would be very productive to continue ‘banging on’ about why teachers should use technology in their lessons; this message has already been received.

What may be lacking in some teachers is the knowledge of ‘what’ technology to use or ‘how’ it can be used. This may often be accompanied by a low level of confidence in using the technology and possibly poor experiences of trying to use it in the past. Where this is the case, we need to be able to provide training to enable the teachers to explore technology and to ‘play’ with it in order to develop their confidence and allow them to identify for themselves the ways in which they might use it in their teaching.

In terms of the ‘what’ to use, it may often be the case that teachers have had exposure to only a limited range of technology. This is sometimes the case where the technology is situated in a special room, such as a computer suite, and can only be accessed if ‘booked’ or scheduled on a timetable. This can be further compounded if the technology is seen as being the ‘property’ or domain of a particular person or department within the school.

I mentioned, in a previous paragraph, the need for training, for me, the word ‘training’ is not the best word to use. What we are talking about here is more professional skills development and peer collaboration. At least that is the way I try to approach teacher ‘training’ sessions. Training seems to imply that there is something you lack and, until you get it, you are not a full professional. This seems to be an almost negative and demoralising, maybe even patronising, approach which doesn’t really convey a positive, supportive and professional approach.

In my many years of working with teachers, I have consistently found that if you give them a piece of kit, or anything, and ask them how it could be used in a lesson, they will come up with 101 suggestions, most of which you will never even have thought of before. Let us not forget that these are teachers; they are intelligent people with lively curious minds who genuinely want to give the best for their learners.

Okay, so we have established that we no longer need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons, it is the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ that needs to be tackled. I have also suggested that, in my opinion, changing our approach to training would be beneficial. The question still remains, though, as to ‘How can we get more teachers to use technology effectively in their teaching?’ which was the question posed at the beginning of the #ukedchat twitter debate.

a transcript of the #ukedchat twitter debate can be downloaded here

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The Real Purpose of ICT in Schools

Monday, October 11th, 2010

2264459839 dc67745e2f m The Real Purpose of ICT in Schools

I don’t think anyone could deny that ICT or Educational Technology is a very versatile tool for schools.

If I were to ask you to list all the ways in which technology is used in your school, you’d come up with a list as long as your arm. Perhaps, I should rephrase that to read ‘the ways in which technology could be used in your school’ because I think it’s almost certain that few of us use the technology to its full capability.

Among the uses that you might mention, could be;

  • Writing reports,
  • preparing lesson plans,
  • monitoring attendance,
  • collecting data on pupils,
  • measuring progress
  • assessing pupils’ ability
  • writing letters to parents
  • creating policy documents, schemes of work etc.

all of which are very valid roles and tasks for the computer but they are not what the technology was originally put into schools for

When we first started putting computers into schools, we did not put them in to help teachers create reports and plans, we did not put them in to monitor and assess pupil progress, they were not even put in for teachers to use!

Computers were first put into schools to help pupils learn and, I would argue, this remains the prime reason for having computers in schools.

Yet, we seem to be in danger of forgetting this.

Too often, we see eduction technology discussed on an institutional level with its network infrastructures or as an administrative tool with its bloat of office software and services or as a ‘teachers’ tool with its aids for preparation, planning and lesson delivery. All of these have their place in schools but they do not always serve the prime role of schools, which is to educate pupils. Why is it that we feel it is right for every teacher in a school to have a laptop but not every pupil?

Even at times when we discuss how technology can help learning, it turns into a debate into how teachers can use the technology rather than the learners.

I hear people criticise schools because they have not used ICT to help save money. Yet saving money has never been the purpose behind putting ICT into schools. By all means criticise schools if they fail to utilise the technology for learning; that, learning, is the main purpose of a school. Criticise schools where money may not have been spent wsisely or correctly but please don’t criticise schools for not using ICT to save money when that was never the purpose of it.

At this time, schools, like everyone else (perhaps more than anyone else), are feeling the brunt of government cutbacks in spending and there is obviously concern as to how money, what money there may be, can be spent wisely. At such times as this, I feel schools need to refocus their attention on their core business; which is the education of learners. No matter what economic climate we live in, people expect schools to provide learning and that will be the criterion by which schools will be judged rather than their ability to maintain overblown network and administrative infrastructures.

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Education Just Cannot Win

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Nuvola apps bookcase Education Just Cannot Win
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Today is one of those days when, it seems,  Education just cannot win. It’s the day when, in England, students receive the results of their A level examinations.

The significance of these results is that any student wishing to progress on to Higher Education will do so based upon the grades achieved in these examinations. So not getting the grades needed in these examinations, could mean that the student misses out on their chosen place at university.

Of course, teachers also get nervous at this time, hoping that their students have done well and achieved the grades they needed (or better). Schools, too, hope that the results of their students are good; good grades achieved by pupils makes it easier to attract new students to the school.

What often happens, though, is that if the grades achieved by students across the country are good, then people, well some people, well, actually, some newspapers and the people who read them, will say that the examinations are too easy. It seems strange that, in some people’s eyes, good grades don’t seem to be an indication of the quality and quantity of teaching and learning going on in schools; it only seems to be taken as an indication of a ‘dumbing down’ of the examination system.

Of course, if the grades across the country are poor, then the same newspapers and their readers start to claim that it is a reflection of poor teaching.

So, you see, whichever way it goes, today is a day education just cannot win. At least not in the eyes of the media. Behind the stories, though, are young adults whose futures could be, in part, determined by the outcomes of today; many of them will be successful and many will not. Let us hope that today is a day for celebrating for most students,  their families, teachers and schools.

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