There may be a lot of talk, discussion or debate about ICT in schools. Some people advocate big installations with large networks, ICT suites or ICT rooms. While others talk about handheld devices and wifi or 3G accessibility. Others talk of combining the two. The image seems to be that if we have the money, we’ll spend it. Reality is often different, though, while we may listen or indulge in theoretical discussion about ICT provision, in reality we have to work with what we’ve got.
That’s not to say that having a vision and working toward it is wrong, far from it, but today’s learners need to be educated, they need to be educated for the 21st century and they need to be educated with the equipment the school has now.
We live at a time when we cannot be sure of our funding and a time also when the money does not seem to go as far as it once used to.
Fortunately, 21st century education is not about equipment, it’s about approaches. It’s about putting the learner at the heart of their learning and allowing/enabling them to use the equipment you have in creative and collaborative ways. This seems to be often overlooked in discussions and, indeed, in implementations of modern ICT. Perhaps this may be why capital projects seem to display evidence of infrastructure implementation but little, as yet, evidence of learning transformation.
So is it a time to put our visions on hold? I certainly don’t think so. Yet it may be the time to re-evaluate the equipment we have and the ways in which we use it. Time perhaps to explore new uses of the equipment, time for professional development to disseminate new ideas and new skills. These are perhaps the first steps in transforming learning in our schools and they good news is that they are steps all schools can take, not just those undergoing new installations or BSF building.
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Tags: Educational technology, Information and communication technologies in education, learning transformation
My own school will feel the effects of a large drop in their budget for the next academic year. Resources that are in place will need to be used effectively and creatively. The school has just had an upgrade to its ICT suite so that will provide many opportunities for a creative approach to learning. As the ICT coordinator I’m introducing staff to collaborative working methods that pupils can use during time in the iCT suite and also in class with netbooks, psps and other tech equipment.
Schools generally have ‘enough’ tech with which to provide the learning environment students need. Even if some schools have more than another it’s definitely not what you have, but what you do with it that counts.
I couldn’t agree more, it’s all about using your ICT to its full benefit, however due to lack of budget and time, a lot of teachers can’t / don’t even use their own technology, notably interactive white boards, because of lack of training. In a world where money and time are scarce it’s so important for teachers to have an affordable and time friendly method of learning about the equipment that can transform a classroom.