eLearning at TIGS: Di Epoff’s Blog

Last week I attended the UNSW Winter Partnership “Technology Based Teaching and Learning Conference” at Kensington. The School of Education presented two days of workshops and lectures covering ICT pedagogies and current research related to eLearning in our schools.The conference was valuable for me in terms of my role as Director of eLearning as well as a classroom teacher.

Dr Matthew Clarke’s Plenary address explored the idea of technology as a ‘fix’ for education and questioned its potential as a tool to change the world. He proposed that the rise of educational technology is increasingly ‘commercialising’ education and warned that it must be perceived as nothing more than a tool. Its relevance should be determined by asking: Does it add pedagogical depth? Clarke cited a 2007 research project that surmised the slowness of teachers to take up ICT as the result of their need to reflect on the pedagogical efficiacy and potential prior to adopting, rather than technophobia. He maintains that the way forward with technology in our classrooms should proceed via evolution as opposed to revolution.

One of the most enlightening points of his presentation for me, provided a light-bulb moment when he explained that children see technological devices as cultural forms whereas we see them as technology! This perception is crucial to understanding the huge divide between the perceptions of students and their teachers. Schools need to adopt technology, not for the sake of having whizz bang devices and hardware, but for its potential as a cultural form that allows teachers to create learning environments and experiences that match the needs and ‘intelligences’ of their students.

I have written this article in response to the Learning Technologies User Group’s online pre-conference forum of the same name. I am attending the LTUG Conference in QLD from 5th-7th November 2008.

This is specifically a response to Mark Bauerlein’s evidence that literacy standards are dropping in our schools, due to students’ increasing reliance and use of technology.

Before we take away their laptops….

Before we take away their laptops, perhaps we need to consider Mark Bauerlien’s discussion in the light of what we are really trying to provide for our students through education.

Gen Z, born from 1995 onwards, will live, work and participate largely in a technocentric culture, which I imagine will be radically different to ours. They will need new skills and new literacies to adapt to the complex social, cultural, environmental and technological issues they will surely face as they reach adulthood.

I have often thought the same things that Mark mentions – the drop in what we call student ‘literacies’ and ‘standards’. However some research has reminded me that the term literacy, like technology, has radically changed. It has, in fact, kept abreast of technology.

“… literacy is more than just being able to read and write; it is the ability to comprehend, interpret, analyze, respond, and interact with the growing variety of complex sources of information”. This definition was written by Roger Sensenbaugh in 1990! Since then we have witnessed a proliferation of literacies: computer literacy, scientific literacy, emerging literacy, visual literacy, conceptual literacy, cultural literacy, and many more.

A current definition is offered by the Centre for Literacy in Quebec: “Literacy is a complex set of abilities needed to understand and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture – alphabets, numbers, visual icons - for personal and community development. The nature of these abilities, and the demand for them, vary from one context to another.

In a technological society, literacy extends beyond the functional skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening to include multiple literacies such as visual, media and information literacy. These new literacies focus on an individual’s capacity to use and make critical judgements about the information they encounter on a daily basis.”

Are current education systems and institutions up-to-date with the real literacies being invented by new generations of students who have grown up with digital technology? I think not.

The students I teach today are so different to the students I taught only 5 years ago. I have had to completely adapt my own teaching practice to meet the learning demands of these students. These students don’t want to read and write to learn about things. They want to experiment, practice, play and experience how things work. They want to invent their own way to decipher and deliver information, and devise their own literacies in the process.

I am convinced that Gen Z will transform our idea of what literacy means and what ‘standards’ are important in education. In fact, these young people are already rewriting and inventing new literacies as we have this discussion. This happens for many of them on their computers at home – because – at school, they are still engaging with 19th century learning practices!

The “proficiency” of Gen Z is set to challenge us. They may not “create prose that is precise, engaging, and coherent,” and may not be able to “write well enough to meet the demands” of archaic institutions. But they may well be the generation to create the revolution in education we are discussing.

As educators, we have the power now, to stretch the parameters of our own thinking and engagement with technology, to help them create a sophisticated revolution: one where technology is used in meaningful, relevant and contextual ways to sustain a lifelong process of learning, as well as support life on this planet.

Lets not draw “deeply flawed conclusions” about how the literacies of younger generations match up against our own. Rather, let us find some sense of recognition and value in the native digital language of these students, help them identify, refine and utilize multiple literacies, to help equip them for the brave new world in which they will need to survive.

The revolution, the new paradigm of technology-supported education will only be achievable and sustainable when students and the literacies they need to live, work, play and survive in the 21st century, are placed at the centre of the learning process by educators.

I have written this article in response to the Learning Technologies User Group’s online pre-conference forum of the same name. I am attending the LTUG Conference in QLD from 5th-7th November 2008.

Has technology Revolutionized Education?

Technology will revolutionize education when it is used as a wholesale instrument of pedagogy, rather than as a resource.

Technology on its own is of little benefit to many teachers: a data projector is a good substitute for an overhead projector, perhaps. Unfortunately I have observed this in many secondary and tertiary classrooms.

If real change is to take place, teachers need to learn how to effectively use technology as a tool for student learning, rather than use it merely to display resources or source information. In most Australian schools, a digital education revolution seems light years away!

Installing computers in any number of classrooms will not effect change until teachers change their way of teaching. This can be achieved through subtle shifts in pedagogies: posing questions that encourage students to use computers to discuss-collaborate-research-interact-analyze-answer problems-present solutions, rather than source information-find facts-copy-paste-print.

The key is to create a paradigm shift through pedagogy and teaching practice so that the way our students learn is revolutionized! The shift toward student-centred, problem-based learning environments will empower Gen Z and Y students to do what they do best: use technology as a primary language to learn everything they need to know, just-in-time. For these new generations of students, authentic learning is technology-centred and their chief native language is digital.

Educators can theorize the need for change and manufacturers can invent amazing whizz-bang technology, but the revolution will not even begin to take shape until teachers are assisted and supported in the process of creating new pedagogies to embrace ICT as a learning tool in their classrooms.

The real revolution must be facilitated by administrative bodies and governments, not merely through the installation of hardware, but more importantly, through the supply of ICT focused professional development opportunities and support for teachers.

The technology itself will not inspire revolution. However, the meaningful use of technology may revolutionize education. Such a revolution will be human-centred, driven not by the technology itself, but by the wisdom and insight of teachers, and the enthusiasm and engagement of their students.