Using technology to support your school vision

Digitally Speaking "In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools." Nicholas Negroponte, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab

“We have sunk in international league tables and the National Curriculum is substandard. Meanwhile the pace of economic and technological change is accelerating and our children are being left behind. The previous curriculum failed to prepare us for the future. We must change course. Our review will examine the best school systems in the world and give us a world-class curriculum that will help teachers, parents and children know what children should learn at what age.” Michael Gove in launching the curriculum review

"The future of education in this country depends on how well we equip young people to go on and succeed in their lives. And all of us know that if we are serious about achieving that ambition, it has to include giving them access to the very best that technology has to offer. Technology supports higher order thinking skills: such as reasoning, analysis, scientific enquiry – and by engaging students in authentic, complex tasks. The time has come to ensure that children and young people are able to take advantage of the wonders that technology brings – without the dangers. The time has come to place technology at the absolute centre of our aspirations for a world class education sector.“ Tim Loughton Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children BETT Education Leaders’ Conference 2010

“Effective integration of ICT into education must go beyond replacing, streamlining or accelerating current practices. It should help to create new and more effective ways of operating and support teaching and organisational innovation. ICT is now embedded in our social and economic fabric; it should be similarly integral to education and training.” The EU View May 2010

“We want to develop inquisitive, creative, resourceful thinkers; informed citizens; effective problem-solvers; groundbreaking pioneers; and visionary leaders. We want to foster the excellence that flows from the ability to use today’s information, tools, and technologies effectively and a commitment to lifelong learning. All these are necessary for Americans to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society.” National Education Technology Plan U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology

“We can classify education into two main categories: passive education relying primarily on memory, and active education relying on intelligent understanding and discovery. Our real problem is what is the goal of education? Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds capable of discovery from the preschool age on through life?” Piaget

“Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” Rabindranath Tagore Joe’s non-netbook

Quantity over quality In recent years both local and central government have been too heavily focused on the quantity of ICT use in schools, rather than on its quality. There exists a disconnect between the ways in which children make use of technology in the home and the way it is used within schools’ learning environments, threatening a disengagement on the part of pupils. In order to improve educational outcomes, schools need to look again at their use of ICT and ensure that it is applied in ways which relate to the way in which pupils engage with it in their lives beyond the classroom.

Future Success? Success in tomorrow’s knowledge-based world depends on innovative thinking and collaboration. It depends on finding connections across domains and understanding what global issues look like through the lens of international neighbours. It depends on the ability to generate creative solutions to problems. It depends on understanding the kinds of cultural factors influencing the choices made by other nations. It depends on being able to persuade in a world where influence is easier to generate and where minds are buried in thousands of messages. Bill Ferriter

Our children’s futures will require them to be: Networked: They’ll need an “outboard brain.” More collaborative: They are going to need to work closely with people to co- create information. More globally aware: Those collaborators may be anywhere in the world. Less dependent on paper: Right now, we are still paper training our kids. More active: In just about every sense of the word. Physically. Socially. Politically. Fluent in creating and consuming hypertext: Basic reading and writing skills will not suffice. More connected: To their communities, to their environments, to the world. Editors of information: Something we should have been teaching them all along but is even more important now. Will Richardson (2008)

Government ICT Strategy Technology has the potential to help transform educational outcomes in the UK. The wider coalition government view is that “ICT is a fundamental tool that every modern state needs.” Harnessed successfully, advances in technology could help to engage pupils and students, deliver a more effective and productive learning environment and help ensure that school leavers are readier for the world of work.

Creating a strategy for our learners

What are your learners experiencing?

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“Easily the greatest struggle that educators face in today's day and age is properly preparing students for a future that is poorly defined yet rapidly changing. While we know that something must change, we simply cannot begin to imagine what those changes might look like.” Bill Ferriter “……the transformative changes needed to truly prepare our kids for the 21st- century global economy simply will not happen unless we first shed some of the entrenched practices that have held back our education system, practices that have long favoured adults, not children.” WaPo Manifesto