As I research around my role I often find some great resources, and sometimes some are pointed out to me. Thank you to Flea Palmer (@fleapalmer) for this Educause article: “Educational Technology: The Hype, the Reality, the Promise” (Shwiff & Larkin 2013)
This is also very topical as part of my ‘what is a Learning Technologist’ series of blog posts, and as a resource for the collaborative research with Rachel Cullen and Geraldine Murphy from Loughborough College.
The article comes with quick reference ‘take-away’ notes to make it easy for most of us to not read the full article, but I urge you to read it, it is full of good information and research.
These three take-away notes of interest are:
Within universities, there’s a growing tension between faculty, who typically focus on what is taught, and educationalists and technologists, who focus on how things are taught.
To realize the opportunities that technology offers, we must first re-imagine higher education’s long-standing learning model and ensure that all stakeholders make educational quality and critical thinking a priority.
Educational entrepreneurship can offer a way forward by offering incentives for educationalists, technologists, and faculty members to collaborate, experiment, and innovate.
“We should never confuse education with training or the “tools” that educators use.”
Yes, technology can enhance the learning experience, it can enhance the engagement and interactions available to student and staff alike. It can also alienate and discourage engagement or interaction, depending not only on the individuals and their comfort, but also by it’s inappropriate use or implementation. I do not want to see blogs or wikis used everywhere in all courses, there are simply times when it is not appropriate to either the learning, the students, or the activity. Similarly there are times when reflection is to be encouraged as part of the learning, and a private blog or journal could be a good way to facilitate this. Again though, the technology needs to support the learning, not the other way round.
“What we need for learning to occur are well-prepared and motivated teachers, students who are willing and able to learn, and a social system that values educational attainment.”
This would be good, but I think this is slightly out of our control … but there are so many of us who wish it wasn’t. Despite our best efforts this simple idea and approach is diluted or ignored by infrastructure, politics, management, and a whole assortment of institutional systems and policies.
“There is simply no substitute for the role of a well-prepared and motivated teaching professional.”
The teachers must also have the support of their employer, in terms of time, finance, and management, as well as support when they want to try something new or different, support when it goes wrong or complaints are made against them, support in attaining merit or awards, support in just knowing that there is someone who will jump up and defend them when it gets a bit hairy or difficult, and support in the form of a ‘well done’ comment from someone who has the position to encourage them when they need it.
“We must incentivize educationalists, technologists, and classroom teachers/professors to experiment and innovate”
No! I would counter this by saying it’s not about giving incentive to those who need it, it’s about not stifling the passion and incentive in those who already have it. The problem isn’t teachers who don’t care, the problem is the teachers who do care, and care a lot, not having the support, confidence and encouragement from the ‘establishment’ to keep going in the knowledge that their hard work and passion will rewarded or accepted. We need teachers to feel safe in their role and employment, to have the confidence to try something, maybe even fail, and to know that they will not be criticised by either manager or parent for trying to use a new tool or technique to get children interested or as passionate about the subject as they are.
My wife is a teacher. She has taught in Key Stage One (UK 4-7 year olds) for 14 years, straight from University. She had wanted to be a teacher from a very early age. She has passion for her work, and loves the children, even the difficult ones, and people she works with. She does not teach for the money or the paperwork or meetings or governance or job. She teaches because she can, because she’s good at it, and because she knows she is giving a young child the best start in their schooling life she can. She is good at what she does. She has taken a few years out from work to bring up our two young boys, in the plan/hope she’ll go back to teaching when they’re at school age. Now our eldest is at school, in reception (and loving it!) she is looking to the future and going back to teach. Or rather ‘was’. With changes and continual interference from School, county/district, management, and politicians, the role of teacher is no longer respected as it once was. Teachers are no longer allowed to use their experience from many years in the classroom. Teachers no longer have the confidence that their superiors have their best interests at heart. Teachers are now in a position where their hands are tied to what they can or can’t do … and the children know it, and play up to it.
We are losing experienced teachers (Boffey, 2012) at an alarming rate, so how is this gap going to be filled? Newly qualified teachers may have the skills with technology to fill the gap, but this experience as a teacher is gone: the experience of how to handle unruly and naughty children, the experience of how to enthuse children and entice them to try new things in new subjects in new ways? These experienced teachers have been available in the past to mentor and pass on their many years of teaching to new teachers, but that is not going to happen with teachers leaving their chosen vocation (it is not a job to many of them) early. All the time children are still passing through schools, some having great experiences and learning lots, others not. If a child ‘fails’ at school we find lots of excuses in their background, aptitude, intelligence, attendance, etc. but what about the ‘system’? Is that ever held accountable in the same way a teacher or child is? If the ‘system’ fails it won’t fail one or two children, it’ll fail a whole generation. And that’s just too depressing to think about.
I realise I went off the original topic here, and ended this post on a real downer .. this was not my intention. I love my work. I love the achievements I make on a daily basis, big or small. I love being able to give someone a new skill or new tool to try something they hadn’t thought of before, to achieve something they thought was unacheivable, to think differently, or to just have the confidence in themselves to do what they wanted in the first place. This is what the role of a Learning Technologist is, to me, at it’s core. Everything else is just a bonus!
From one of my all-time favourite songs … “Teacher, teacher won’t you open your eyes, teach me something that I need to know.”
No comments:
Post a Comment