A few days ago, I was lucky enough to get a glimpse into the future of education, or at least what I though was the future. It appears the future is right here, right now! Our class visited a private girls school to have a look at their ICT facilities and to see how teachers incorporate technology into their daily teaching and learning experiences. Wow! I felt like I had walked into a workspace at Apple HQ. I can't even imagine what Apple HQ must look like, if this is what a school in Perth has to offer.
Every Apple device imaginable was available for the girls (in highschool) to use, including web 2.0 technologies such as wikis for use in each of their subjects. I was quite envious of their 2 yearly turn around of hardware. Mine turn around is closer to 5 years. Even the wee ones in kindy were involved, playing pianos on iPads. Here, technology is part of the furniture and incorporated into every aspect of learning, just like the outdated pen and paper used to be. Wonderful if you can afford it but what happens when you can't?
Now don't get me wrong. I do not begrudge these girls this type of education. Their parents probably work tirelessly to provide for it. In fact, I know I'l be working my butt off for at least the next 12 years, solely to ensure my own kids are given similar opportunities. But if this is the future of education (and we all know it is) then what happens to the Aboriginal kids attending a remote community school or even middle class kids who go to the local, but under-resourced, public school? Does this kind of technology increase the social divide between the haves and have nots? It may not make much of a difference now, while these kids are at school. Kids don't know they have missed out on something until they have been exposed to what it is they have been missing out on. But what about, in a few years time, when they go to get a job? Will there be a whole set of important skills that they have completely missed out on being taught because the technology was not made available to them?
I know I am asking many more questions than I could possible try to answer in this post, but that seems to be the nature of this blog. My reflections have become questions about the whole nature of education as we know it - but I guess that's the point, isn't it? It's a bit of a doulbe-edged sword, so to speak - I was inspired by the possibilities during our visit but I also found it slightly disturbing. I will try to articulate why.
While I think the omnipresence of such technology is great on many levels, both for the girls and the teachers, I can't help but feel we are also losing something in the process. It's wonderful to see kindy kids playing virtual pianos, when they may not be exposed to the real thing outside of school. Something like this can fill great voids in kids learning experiences. But how can it possibly compare to the touch and sound of a real piano? How can downloading the latest bestseller and reading it, while waiting in your car for your kids to finish footy practice, even come close to the experience of visiting your favourite bookshop, scouringing the overcrowded shelves, rushing home and waiting patiently for that moment of peace, when everyone in the house has gone to bed, so you can finally begin your new book. Well, it can't compare. I know we have alot to gain by the availability of all this technology and it's presence in every aspect of our lives but we are losing alot also. I, for one, am going to try and have the best of both worlds.
PS I've included this Wordle image from the literature I've been reading for my Capstone Experience on Creative & Cultural Education. I have to admit, I love building this stuff, whether it's a wiki, a Wordle image or an animation. But I will always make time to visit my favourite bookshops!
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| Wordle image from "All our futures: Creativity, Culture & Education" (NACCCE Report, 1999) |
Hi Trudy,
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about some of your questions all day. You make some really important points about educational equality.
What we saw this week also kind of knocked my confidence a little. I was starting to feel I was getting the hand of these tools and their pedagogical applications, but they still feel a little bit 'special' (normalisation is taking a long time in our house). Then when I saw what the school was doing with technology, just as normal pedagogy, I felt there was still a huge gulf for me to cross.
The disparity in education is unfair on many levels and is part of a much bigger picture. But technology is not going away and what we saw on Tuesday does seem to be the direction in which education is heading - as usual, responding to the needs of the future job marketplace (as per SKR). What became clear this week is what schools who receive adequate funding can achieve. Maybe our response as teachers should be to create opportunities for our students to be the best that they can possibly be with the resources we have and lobby anyone who will listen for the resources we don't have but need.
As a parent of a child exposed to the type of learning we saw this week, all I can say is that it is still quite new to us but she is genuinely stimulated and engaged in her learning more than I have ever seen her in the last 7 years. The laptop keeps her really involved in her learning, but it is combined with really great teaching. I agree with you, I'm not ready to live in a virtual world full time. But what we've seen so far (at the school) is that the technology is a teaching tool, it's not replacing any 'real life' experiences. Our daughter still plays basketball and soccer, still plays her (real) violin, still watches mind-numbing cartoons, has playovers and still goes to bed with an old fashioned book at night. I wish more children had access to the learning opportunities being offered at the school. They should.
PS I like your Wordle too.
Trudy, you've made some great points here, as always. I agree that we are seeing a new digital divide opening up, and I think it's going to become most obvious a few years from now when students who've spent the past 10 years on laptops, iPads and iPod Touches roll up for the same first-year undergrad uni classes with students who've been to a locked-down computer lab once a week for the past 10 years. This is a real issue which educators need to consider. As Joanne points out, maybe we need to be lobbying anyone who will listen to get the best equipment we can, but at the same time finding inventive ways to make the most of what we have (as we saw in the visit from a primary teacher who, despite a more technologically limited context, was doing fantastic tech work with her students).
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of gains and losses, Trudy: I agree that every change of communications medium brings both gains and losses. Personally I don't see e-books, for example, as better or worse than hardcopy books - they both have their pros and cons. That said, I suspect hardcopy books will gradually become specialist and/or decorative items, a bit like scrolls or records in our own era.
Hey trude - totally agree with the divide that is going to happen particularly between private and public schools. Fantastic resources but are we really ever going to see the government put that sort of money into govie schools - I think not. They are never going to provide those sort of resources, on that sort of scale. And so education will become unequal, and that doesn't really seem fair to me.
ReplyDeleteAlso this technology is great but is it being used for the sake of saying 'oh we use technology' - is it aiding the child's learning, or depriving them of the real thing. I agree, hitting the keys on a real piano will always be deeper, more meaningful that a digital display. And Mark I hope this is not what we must surrender to be part of the future - is that progress? or just convenient?
Jennie
ReplyDeleteI am really glad that you and Trudi had the balls to write these comments. You are probably aware that I think along the same lines but just state it rather aggressively in the classroom.
Well done.
My relationship with technology is a real love/hate one. It assists me on my learning journey , it cured me of cancer but I really am not that enamored by it.
I actually love the technology, especially where it allows you to be creative in how you deliver learning experiences. I can see many opportunities of how it can be incorporated into daily teaching but yes, it is extremely time consuming to start off with. Also, I have been getting carried away with the design of my wiki. Given my design background, everything has to be just right - which is completely unrealistic in the real classroom setting. Well, unrealistic if i want to have any sort of life beyond my laptop, that is!
ReplyDelete