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The days have long passed when we can allow students to leave school without an understanding of the world around them including the power or computers.

With all this talk about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, perhaps the most marginalised people are the students who are digital immigrants themselves.

It might be “the blind leading the blind” but it has to be addressed.

The Professional Teaching Standards recently introduced in NSW focusses attention on the important role that ICT plays in the role of a modern teacher and there is an indication that it also expects that students will be computer literate.  The Standards require “Knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the following areas:

Graduate Teacher

1.1.4 Demonstrate current knowledge and proficiency in the use of the following:

• Basic operational skills

• Information technology skills

• Software evaluation skills

• Effective use of the internet

• Pedagogical skills for classroom management.

Professional Competence

1.2.4 Apply current knowledge and skills in the use of ICT in the classroom to meet syllabus outcomes in the following:

• Basic operational skills

• Information technology skills

• Software evaluation skills

• Effective use of the internet

• Pedagogical skills for classroom management

Professional Accomplishment

1.3.4 Exhibit and share current skills in the use of ICT in the classroom to meet syllabus outcomes in the following:

• Operational skills

• Information technology skills

• Software evaluation skills

• Effective use of the internet

Professional leadership

1.4.4 Initiate or lead the implementation of policies and processes to integrate ICT into the learning environment

High sounding phrases with a welcome encouragement to aspiring senior teachers to take a leadership role in ICT but the way it is worded suggests that the authors had never read Romeo or Papert. 

On the other hand, none of the syllabi I deal with in commerce/economics and business studies require computer literacy but they all should. 

I was sitting in a tutorial listening to a discussion about our second practicum experience when another member of the group made a comment that resonated in my head.  She said the reason students are so bored in Year 9 and 10 is that, for them, every day has been the same since they settled down in Year 7 – “sit down, get out your books, open your text book to page 112, chalk and talk introduction if you are lucky, then read pages 112 to 115 and do questions 135 and 7 on page 116, pack up and goodbye”.

All that changes each year is the textbook, and all that changes each period is the subject and topic.

No wonder that students are bored and difficult to control … it’ not as if schoolwork as they know it is interesting and challenging! 

Teachers have to do something to address the problem.

The fact that there are exciting interesting effective alternatives through digital options made the situation a no-brainer.  How can we justify not taking this opportunity?

I can see two reasons if not justifications for the failure of the teaching profession to embrace the obvious.  The first is that whether it is age or something else, Oblinger describes a generation of teachers who are, at best, slow to respond.  

The second reason is that there appears to be very little help and resources available to the everyday teacher. 

There is much to be done but, looking at it another way, this is an opportunity for teachers to make a real difference beyond their classrooms by developing, trialling and modelling relevant, effective, exciting variations.

I‘ve heard arguments against the digital natives/digital immigrants analogy and I’ve begun to wonder about the way it works. When I first read Prensky, my reaction was “it’s so true” but I am no longer convinced.

Perhaps there is a better analogy that might be applied. When I was growing up, one of the harmless games we played from time to time was making up our own language so that parents an teachers could not understand our communication. When adults did cotton on and tried to use it, we thought it was interesting rather than particularly communicative. In fact we had to change our ways because they could be understood by others. It was “our” thing which related to “our lives”, or at least the bits outside school and the home that we had some control over.

Admittedly, there may be some skills and cultural norms associated with the digital age that do not apply to secret languages . As I have said before, using digital means to communicate the curriculum is more of an opportunity than an imperative.

It’s something to think about … by the way, perhaps Prensky has stayed where he always was in 2001 and I have moved on.

 Having read Kristine’s Kids Using Blogs for Reflection , I was moved to observe that one of the best things about blogging as an education tool is that it is more like a discussion than an essay and yet there is still a record or what is said.  When you think about it, there is no real parallel in existing classrooms with the exception of something like a poster on which students are encouraged to write comments and while it might happen, it would be pretty rare.  Perhaps the availablity of the new technology will help bring back some of the old good ideas.

While we’re pondering, I’m thinking that the formality and discipline of a blog (no swear words or abbreviations, one person commenting at a time with no immediate interactivity) makes it “neither fish nor fowl” for students – it isn’t instant messaging or Facebooking and its not written work handed in to the teacher.  Perhaps it’s a halfway stage between their social world and school.  It certainly shouldn’t take a term to develop blogging skills but it would be best to start with something really simple or even lead up to it with a MS Word changes and comments exercise, then a Wiki and then expect students to be able to blog.

There is much to like about the Romeo approach but my favourite thing is the clear focus on teachers and students rather than the technology.  Its about learning (and teaching) rather than the software and hardware.

My main concern about the scenario where the history/English teacher somehow deals of four different groups doing four different things is that the Board of Studies might start asking questions about whether Michelle had ensured that all students had been taught all of the syllabus.  We in NSW work within a ridiculously tight curriculum restrictions which may well limit what we can do compared to more liberal places such as Queensland.

I don’t mind so much if the program is “messy”.  I think teachers can’t truly make learning interesting without taking risks.

Trouble is that experienced teachers seem to resile from anything which diminishes their control.

Maybe they know something we don’t know?

I couldn’t wait to respond to “Death by PowerPoint” in Jordan’s blog.

One swallow does not a summer make and one good presentation amongst thousands of colourful but boring and inappropriate student presentations doesn’t make PowerPoint a Godsend.

Admittedly, my major problem is that in most schools computers are only used for two things – internet searches and Power-bloody-Point presentations.

I am delighted that a year 12 class used it well for their revision presentation to their peers but someone has to point out that it wasn’t PowerPoint that facilitated it – all PowerPoint did was make the pretty pictures.  There are heaps of better programs available for collecting and collating (how does PowerPoint actually do that?) and brainstorming and mind-mapping for that matter.

Arguably the bit that PowerPoint actually did could have been done more effectively – more interactively and more personably – by someone with some butchers paper and coloured pens.

I’m with Tufte.  PowerPoint has given computers a bad name and, worse, made long-suffering teachers think they ahve done their ICT thing by requiring students to use PowerPoint.

It’s probably too late to send PowerPoint off to re-education classes where no-one is allowed to use it unless they are actually taught how to use it and I can’t think it would be worth the effort.

As for the Jordfish, he should be made to sit through a few more!

In response to Ying’s post about Wikiing case studies I think it’s a great idea – when Len suggested in class that each student should have their own case study I was concerned about how the teacher would keep control of all of the creations, making sure that that they are comprehensive and appropriate.
Using a Wiki would bring the best of both worlds – a something that the students can take ownership of and something that the teacher can quality control.  The other advantage of wiki is that the creation belongs to the group which is something that can be used to develop group spirit amongst the Year 12 class in particular.

I have a dream.  I can see, hopefully not too far in the future, a time when every teacher’s stock of resources is a thumb drive (or some other digital media) containing all of the resources that now make up the educator’s tool kit.

At its most basic level, the media will include all of the worksheets, test and exams which will be more interesting and exciting documents creating using MS Publisher and similar programs.  The technology that has been around for years will actually be used to update and electrify” these resources each time they are used.

There’s no reason why that can’t happen now.  Hardly an impossible dream from a technological perspective.

Indeed, the established file sharing and sorting software would make it easier to find, easier to swap with other teachers , easier to use and more effective resources.  If there was an itinerant teachers floating around the schools given sessions on how to digitise, update and sort resources, the transition would happen quickly and the results would be fantastic.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg.  The thumb drives could contain all of the digitised and digitally enhanced resources than can go directly to students’ computers, iPods and phones.  This is the material that Romeo says there is a lot of although I can’t find any!  And, as a bonus, we could use the internet to share the best resources available to teach the various concepts our students most struggle with.  Come the day!!

My main area of interest is in computer assisted learning of commerce, economics and business studies.  What I am looking for is a list of resources (hopefully including games) that students can undertake in addition to using the internet t find information.

So far I have a very short list but the search continues.  I would love to hear from anyone who can help.

Bryce McNair