A month ago Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Education, Michael Russell MSP, recently posted a message on YouTube announcing a consultation into the future of GLOW.
In one week there will be a conference in Stirling, with a mix of invited guests attending, with streaming of discussions for anyone to join/comment. There was even a wiki set up to elicit opinions and start the discussion going. I have to say the attitude is refreshingly progressive.
I am not sure I feel qualified or entitled to contribute to the debate. I first saw GLOW
three years ago, and have bumped into it a few times since, but I have never had a GLOW
account – and sadly I am not likely to in the future, but I will come to that later.
I can only scratch the surface here, but after a month of reading and occasional
discussions, the following things occur to me…
Objective 1: Change the culture of the use of ICT
ICT skills need to be treated with the same importance and weight as numeracy and
literacy. Until then pupils and teachers will not be expected to have the skills they
require, and schools will not be expected to provide them.
Pupils need to be able to access the same resources at school as they can at home, and
ideally on their own chosen device. It is ridiculous that a school would block YouTube
(for example) when so many wonderful resources reside there, and when pupils can sit
during lunch watching completely unfiltered content via their 3G smartphones.
Filtering, if it is to exist at all, needs to be implemented in a far more liberal way.
Teachers need to be the arbiters of appropriateness of material, not technical staff or
local authorities.
All this technology makes it really easy to share resources, and yet somehow it happens
surprisingly rarely. The #EduScotICT wiki, as well as
numerous individual blogs, is evidence that people can share, but it happens
infrequently in a meaningful way. We have the opportunity to produce shared instructional
materials and activities, and on top ofthat we can encourage debate and interaction with
and beyond these.
Objective 2: Improve confidence in the use of ICT for learners, teachers, school leaders and parents
Expect competency from teachers and support learners (including teachers, leaders, and
parents). We expect numeracy and literacy to a minimum level from our teachers, surely we
should expect the same of their ICT skills. But, of course, support is needed to make
sure that they can meet expectations. Training, exemplification, sharing, and
encouragement – for all these learner groups).
Recognise a wider variety of skills. Can we please kill our obsession with Microsoft
Office? Although we have to be careful not to replace that with an obsession with iPads.
If you can demonstrate a skill, or an understanding, does it matter how you do so, or
which tool you use? Let’s understand that people learn in different ways.
Be wary of qualifications. ECDL and PC Passport are formulaic approaches to delivering
and assessing ICT skills, and if they fit your needs then that’s great. However, teacher
training courses had ICT as a core skill a decade ago and yet still teachers are joining
the profession lacking skills and confidence. A piece of paper is less effective than a
commitment to share ideas and good practice.
Create national resources. Good resources. Resources to help all learners specifically
with ICT skills, and more generally resources that teachers will want to use. If there
are benefits to gaining ICT skills, people will be more likely to want to gain them.
Encourage the use of “personal learning networks”, whether via Twitter-like tools,
forums, or blogs. Equally, encourage the same in the physical space. Teachmeet, in-school
groups, area discussion groups, and national conferences. I am sure there are many more
options available.
I cannot really comment on this without thinking that the real issue is actually that we
need to work out what we are going to teach and how we are going to assess it. But that’s
another post.
I don’t think it’s about “new” behaviours so much as good practice, which must always
have been at the forefront of any good teacher’s mind. Of course, with changes in
technology, especially as it infiltrates further into schools, there will be a need to
change teaching behaviours. But I hope that all good teacher would recognise that.
We also need to recognise that just because technology is an integral part of life, and
increasingly school, does not mean that everything should be about the technology. But
again, I am sort of hoping that this is a given.
Objective 4: Deepen parental engagement
All schools should go beyond the web site. And it might depend on the school, the parent
population, and the currently prominent tools. But communication in a number of ways,
from which parents can chose, seems a minimum.
Email. Twitter. Facebook. It really does not matter, except there should be multiple
methods of communication, and new ones should be added as they become widespread. The
parents should choose the one they want.
Open pupil records to parents (and pupils). Let them log in and see a pupil’s progress
and current work. Give them a chance to discuss and promote the school.
Let pupils contact parents, and other pupils, themselves. Blogs and wikis, or Facebook
and Twitter – again, it perhaps depends on the school etc., and as technology changes so
must the available tools.
Importantly, give pupils and parents some control over the method of communication.
Again, we all work in different ways. We all want different things.
Objective 5: Strengthen position on hardware and associated infrastructure
All schools need a reliable, high bandwidth network connection. Without the
infrastructure, no amount of improvement in ICT provision within school will be of
benefit.
Whole site Wifi access is required in all schools, with pupils and staff allowed to make
use of their own devices, in and out of classes. Ubiquitous access to all resources.
One to one deployment of devices should be the norm. Type and uniformity of device, and
funding issues, are up for much debate no doubt – but everyone needs something. Universal
access to all resources.
Ideally there should be a single login for each user. Technologies like OpenID/oAuth
allow such an idea to be a reality. Many tools already support generic login methods, and
others do so by use of plug-ins, while I am sure others would be able to with relatively
minor funding/encouragement. Though this is much less essential for staff, much less
likely to be an issue for parents, and only really critical in junior school years.
Create a national resource repository. Encourage sharing, editing, and rating of
resources. All teachers should have access to all resources. Resources need not be
centrally stored, but should be catalogued by course and topic. We have thousands of
teachers in this country, and many more internationally, let’s make use of that. Let’s
all create things for each other.
And finally…
I would not have thought about this, but for my involvement in trying to get GLOW opened
up to independent schools and further/higher education, but really…
Whatever replaces GLOW, assuming it is somehow curated, will not be a truly national resource if organisations are excluded from accessing it and contributing resources to it.