H808 Wks 21-22, activity 1a

“Lord Puttnam (who is also Chancellor of The Open University) has voiced similar concerns in talks he has given, where he compares surgeons and teachers from a century ago with surgeons and teachers of today. He argues that a surgeon of 100 years ago would be unable to work within a modern operational context because of the significant advances in the use of technologies in medicine. In contrast he argues that a teacher from 100 years ago could function fairly well in many modern classroom settings.”

http://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=13610&section=3 (Conole, Sclater, Weller, 2012)

I find this very interesting and true.

Discussing Conole (2011) ‘Stepping over the edge: the implications of new technologies for education’; up to the section entitled ‘Making sense of the complexity’.

1. Is this your experience if you work in an institution? This was my experience when working in local government.
2. Can you think of examples of when technologies have had a radical impact on your own practice – either personally or professionally? Twitter as a micro-blogging tool to learn and share research materials and news.
3. What do you think are some of the key barriers to the uptake of new technologies? Time to learn how to use the technology, wondering if it is worth using – whether beneficial or not, technophobia.
4. From your own experience, can you think of change processes you have been involved with – a new technical system, restructuring of your department, a change in job functionality? Restructuring a local authority department in the 1990’s.
5. How was the change process managed? Led by management with little or no consultation from staff.
6. What was the impact on individuals? Anxiety, disempowered, feeling devalued.
7. What was the impact on day-to-day operations? Low morale and a sense of loss within the department due to some redundancies, an ‘emotional go-slow’ not out of anger or a downing of tools but due to complex arrangements (moving office furniture, changing filing systems, adapting to technology – using computers instead of copious amounts of paper. Fear that the computers would crash and lose valuable (and confidential) files.

As Mayes, Puttnam and others have argued, education seems to have been slower than other industries in embracing the potential of technologies.

Can you think of reasons why this might be the case? Teaching remains the same – classrooms with pupils/students due to school buildings. Many schools were not designed for the 21^st century e.g. accessibility for those with disabilities, moreover the cost and implications for teachers in restructuring a school could lead to the problems discussed above. Concern about cost. The occasional training days would not be able to affect a substantial impact in how to teach using technology, other than the occasional whiteboard etc. The fabric of school buildings and the current teacher training needs updating so it is not a ‘sage on a stage’ (Brown, 2007) scenario with bored pupils and a teacher wasting their breath and time – learning has to be meaningful.  Pea (2008) devised a five-stage model in considering the impact of technology on practice. “These phases emphasize the development of technologies, as well as the co-evolution of tools and users. Pea argues that as a result of these changes, how we learn has evolved substantially as well, echoing similar arguments emerging from empirical studies of the “Net Generation” …“(Conole, 2011).

1.      Is there anything significantly different about the nature or culture of education that has had an impact? As Conole (2011) suggests they are some technologies being used in education e.g.: “MELT (Metadata Ecology for Learning and Teaching) http://info.melt-project.eu/ concerned with improving the quality of metadata for educational resources; Notschool http://www.notschool.net/ an online alternative to traditional schooling for disaffected children; eportfolios.” However “teachers have to juggle a complex range of duties associated with teaching, research, and administration. The boundaries in terms of roles are no longer clear. Professional development in understanding and using technologies is more important than ever, but many institutions struggle to provide adequate and targeted support; this is further exacerbated by the fact that teachers lack the time and incentive to explore new technologies and have competing calls on their time, most notably a general drive to focus on research” (Conole, 2011).

2.      Do you think this is also true for Web 2.0 technologies? Web 2.0 technologies provide opportunities to inform and support teaching as shown above.

3.      Do you think that the hype about Web 2.0 tools is justified? Yes because the internet provides free research material, lessons plans etc. likely to be useful for teachers.

Do you think there is any evidence yet that Web 2.0 tools are having a significant and increasing impact on how teachers teach and learners learn? “Redecker (2009) identified over 200 illustrative case studies of the use of Web 2.0 technologies in learning and teaching.” This is a very low number considering how many schools are in each county.

1. Are we on another ‘groundhog day’ cycle or is there something significantly different this time? It could easily be a ‘groundhog day’ for some schools depending usually on the head-teacher and governing body – how enlightened and progressive they are or not. It also depends on the views of the local authority.
2. If your conclusion is broadly that each technology is just another cycle of change, with promises not matching reality, is the perspective any different if the lens on this is over a longer time frame? In other words, has there been a significant change in practice when you take a longer-term, cumulative account of a range of technologies? Learning technology is available but there are cultural issues within the educational context where teachers likely feel disempowered where pupils understand more about technology than they do. Free email means many pupils will have their own account and may not be interested in a school account (Conole, 2011).

Reflection:

1. Consider to what extent you agree with the arguments Conole makes. She points out the possibilities and outlines the potential difficulty, yet overall it is a positive view. The study was strictly limited so did not provide adequate evidence.
2. Reflect on your own experience and how technologies have changed the way you do things and how you work. I used to be an adult trainer in a classroom, the convenience of online learning and teaching means it is more accessible.

What changes have occurred in your own organisation, if you work in one, over the last decade in terms of the use of technologies? Most modules used to provide folders and/or books for study but these can now be pdf’s online, it is cheaper to produce and generally more accessible for those with disabilities. Rather than for instance a large print book, a screen-reader can adjust font size for those with visual impairments.

References

Pea, R. (2008, November 6). Fostering learning in the networked world. Keynote presentation delivered at Becta’s Research Conference 2008: Exploring technology-enabled change in education, Sheffield, UK. Retrieved December 21, 2008, from http://events.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=38800&download_url=http://events.becta.org.uk/content_files/corporate/resources/events/2008/november/pea_fostering_learning.pdf

Redecker, C. (2009). Review of Learning 2.0 practices: Learning 2.0, the impact of Web 2.0 innovations on education and training in Europe. Saville, Spain: Institute for Perspective Technological Studies.