For this weeks blog I will be discussing contemporary trends
in New Zealand or internationally and for it I will be using Rolfe et al.’s
(2001) reflective model. ‘Looking at trends informs our ideas about what might
happen as we better understand what is already changing in education’s wider
environment’ OECD. (2016) (p. 16)
What
So What
It is easy to see from the statistics that digital learning
is a trend that is here to stay For example, Daggett (2014) stated that 71% of
high school students used texting to communicate and 3 out of 10 students used
Twitter. It would be interesting to see recent figures as I believe that the number
of Twitter users within that age range would have gone up significantly and the
texting number would have gone down, as from personal experience and
questioning of my classes, most students now communicate through instant
messaging such as Snapchat and Messenger. Digital learning within classrooms
will throw up challenges, not only for myself but both nationally and internationally.
Hanna et al. (2010) stated ‘The pedagogic model underlying too many schools and
classrooms is still aimed at preparing students for the industrial economy, and
is very different from the activities at the heart of knowledge-based
organisations, societies and economies’ (p. 10). They also explained that ‘Students
should become self-directed, lifelong learners, especially as they are
preparing for jobs that do not yet exist, to use technologies that have not yet
been invented, and to solve problems that are not yet recognised as problems’
(p. 9).
What Now
Obviously this means that, as schools we need to be looking
at both what the curriculum we deliver looks like and how we deliver it. Even
though technology and the internet is making the world a more connected place,
this is a big task. In big cities where there may be more choice of career and/or
opportunities this may be somewhat easier than smaller communities where those
opportunities are hard to find. For example, a high school aged child in
California may be able to visit Google headquarters and see first-hand the advancement
in their A.I, and this may light a spark that sets the student off down a
particular career path. That opportunity may not be as readily available to a
high school child in, say, Middlesbrough U.K. Also as educators we need to look
at our own preconceptions of digital learning and what that involves. I still,
at times, see red when I see a student casually take a phone out of their
pocket as my first instinct is to think that they are up to no good. I also
know of this to be true with several of my colleagues and we need to change
this mindset as the positives of incorporating digital learning into our pedagogy
vastly outweigh the negatives, Daggett (2014) summed this up with this quote ‘Digital
learning is a catalyst for college and career readiness. Today’s learners are
digital natives—yet they come to school and power down their devices’ (p. 4). Dagget
also went on to say ‘Although some schools still have a “no cell phone policy,”
most students still bring their mobile devices to school—especially in high
school—and use them to communicate, collaborate and solve problems, even if
they are not part of a teacher’s lesson plan’ (p. 4). With this in mind we have
to embrace this trend and school leaders should follow Dagget’s (2014) steps
especially ‘creating a culture that supports change’ through staff PD, ‘creating
a team within the school focused on the impact of the emerging trend’ and ‘network
with other to share best practices’. One could argue that the recent set up of
CoL’s are facilitating this last point.
Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing
Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf
Devaney, L. (2015). 100 districts
that are digital learning innovators. Retrieved from https://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/12/11/digital-learning-546/
Hanna,
D., David, I., & Francisco, B. (Eds.). (2010). Educational research and
innovation the nature of learning using research to inspire practice: Using
research to inspire practice. OECD publishing. Retrieved
from http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/50300814.pdf
OECD. (2016) Trends Shaping
Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_
edu-2016-en Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in
Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutu
reChallenges.pdf
Sherry, P. (2015). BYOD: What
Training Professionals Need to Know. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/byod-training-professionals-need-know
Hi Ian, you have made some great points here. I feel exactly the same on the BYOD, it should be all or nothing. It is the pain of my class when half of my students are running around other classes looking for devices. That's 5/10 minutes of a waste gone already. Again I agree with you on the snapchat and messenger, plus also instagram, they seem to be at the forefront when it comes to communication now as opposed to Facebook and texting. I'm guilty myself communicating with different people either texting, snapchatting or whatsapping! I thought it was funny when you said about how you automatically think the worst when a phone pops out as I have been guilty of this. The amount of times a student has said I'm googling the word or subject as it's faster than a chromebook! Sometimes I feel we are quite ahead when it comes to technology in the classroom but then you hit a wall. I see technology in the classroom for me 1 step forward and 2 steps back. My biggest challenge will be to use the up and coming technology appropriately and in the right way with the students. Hoping that as time goes on the two will smoothly merge together to help learning with technology in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteHi Ian,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post as I chose to focus on the impact of digital learning too. I agree it is most relevant to our practice and probably the biggest reason for me to take on The Mind Lab course. It is interesting that you feel that a BYOD approach should be all or nothing. My classes are BYOD and it has opened my eyes to a whole set of other problems that come with them! I also find it a challenge to keep up with the use of new technology and use it in the right way! There are so many possibilities and more evolving. The challenge will be staying on top of it all! Best of luck!
Hi Ian
ReplyDeleteYet another thought provoking blog from you! I did have a chuckle when you mentioned that as soon as your students pull out a phone you automatically think they are up to no good! I do this too, although not many primary school students are bringing phones to school as they would in high school. We are a digital one to one device classroom, and while we are the envy of many, it has its downside too. Although according to Daggett (2014) students come as digital natives, this is not always the case. They may be able to fire up their computer and play a game or use google to find some information but they have little to no experience in ascertaining whether that information is of good quality, can be trusted or, if in fact, is even real! The penchant for Year 7 and 8 students is to take the very first site that pops up, despite it being not trustworthy, and taking it as gospel. So herein lies yet another problem - not only using devices at the wrong time, but not being able to use them at the right time!
Mindset definitely needs to be changed and possibly from the top down - as we are banned from having phones at staff meetings after school - not always the best way to create a positive environment for all concerned! Great blogging Ian... I hope you continue after Mindlab!
Hi Ian,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your blog. I found it very interesting to read. I completely agree with your comment that BYOD should be all or nothing. We slowly integrated it over a couple of years before finally saying enough is enough! It was very challenging being told to use technology but only having a small handful of students able to participate that way. There were no benefits compared to the now fully BYOD classroom where students can actually work digitally and collaboratively.
I also find it interesting that literature suggests that students need to become self-directed learners. Blended learning always sounds amazing to me in theory but I struggle with the reality. Teaching in a small Southland rural school is has not been practical to experiment with this theory. Students often have after school jobs or commitments and it is impractical or they simply don’t have access to the online material due to the location of their house. We run a weekly google homework task for our Junior students where they have to log on and complete a short tasks online and submit it via Classroom. The purpose is to familiarise themselves with Classroom and submitting assessments before they become seniors. However, this year I have three students who don’t have access to the internet at home and their parents have asked me to give them paper copies (which is fine but completely undermines the purpose). I would be interested in hearing from other small schools who face similar issues with digital learning.