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Cultural change needed to exploit ICT in schools

Dr Alison Elliott, Information Age

16/04/2004 11:17:20

It’s over 20 years since the widespread introduction of computers in schools. But rarely does a day pass when there isn’t some debate about access, cost, training and quality. Most schools would probably say they don’t have enough computers, that teachers need more training to use them effectively, and students have more information and communication technology (ICT) expertise than many teachers.

In many ways, Australia has been a leader in ICT and education since the earliest days. As the clunky microcomputers of the 80s gave way to today’s sleek, high-tech equipment, innovative educators and policy makers have changed the way they think about teaching and learning. But 20 years on many teachers still have little confidence with the technology, let alone the ability or interest to integrate ICTs in their teaching.

Since the first computers in education policies of the 1980s, Australian education authorities have led the way in thinking about transforming teaching and learning through educational technologies. In the early 80s Australia pioneered global, digital communications in schools when Dr Malcolm Beazley set up first e-mail connections between schools in Australia and the US.

Today, Computer Pals Across the World (CPAW) is a major global educational electronic network spanning 20 countries. It provides opportunities for people in educational and community settings to share their experiences, ideas and knowledge in a variety of collaborative learning environments to enhance global understanding.

Policy statements from the mid 80s herald ICT as a tool that will change classrooms and empower students’ learning. In reality, few classrooms in the 80s looked different from their 70s predecessors. Two decades later, there is not much to distinguish many contemporary classrooms from the classrooms of 1984 or 1994.

There may be a pod of computers in the room, but they’re probably not being used well. Rarely are they used for just-in-time learning or to enhance thinking and problem-solving.

Despite huge investment in ICT by governments and education authorities, it’s difficult to gauge the extent of ICT supply and use in schools as the gaps between rhetoric, policy and practice vary from state to state, place to place and school to school. There is no central data collection and little national research.

The recent National Education Performance Monitoring Taskforce’s document Monitoring Progress towards the National Goals of Schooling: Information and Communication Technology Skills and Knowledge reported that in 2000, 37 per cent of computers in schools were in laboratories and 31 per cent in classrooms. Secondary schools were most likely to use computer labs while primary schools tended to have computers in the classroom. In some non-government schools laptops were quite widely used as well.

Clearly security is a big issue for schools. Some computer rooms look like Fort Knox and placing computers in regular classrooms can pose major security problems at some schools.

These days all schools should be connected to the Internet, but speed, capacity and reliability are variable. Many schools don’t yet have access to broadband technologies. Further, being connected doesn’t mean that students have ready Internet access. Internet connections are likely to be in the staffroom, the main office or the library. These days most schools have scanners and digital cameras, but they are not always available for every day classroom use. Few schools have wireless capabilities

As real-world technology rushes ahead, many schools are lucky to have last decade’s technology, let alone last year’s. Computers with multimedia capabilities and broadband or wireless connections are not likely to be commonplace in every classroom for some time.

One of the major public critics of ICT use in schools is Canadian Alison Armstrong, author of The Child and the Machine. Armstrong says that schools have rushed headlong into ICT use without careful thought or planning. While many educators see computers as enriching and invigorating education, she questions their use and benefits.

It’s hard to see how anyone could accuse educators of rushing in to computers - or any other educational innovation. On the contrary, education is notoriously slow to innovate and many a paper has been written on the subject of resistance to educational change. In fact, the Australian Council for Computers in Education says “education systems are large and have considerable inertia, especially in respect of installed capital equipment and current skills base”.

Not surprisingly, the introduction and adoption of ICT in schools mirrors many other educational innovations. Slow and steady in some schools, not at all in many. Rarely do schools leap headlong into innovation.

Like hardware issues, classroom uptake of computer-based and other digital learning opportunities is difficult to gauge. As research in Australia, the US and UK has shown, even where digital resources are available, teachers are often uncertain about their use.

In the primary school computers are most likely to be used for story and report writing, “drill and practice” maths activities, reading electronic books and some word recognition and spelling.

In a study of 60 Sydney primary school classrooms over a four week period, children in nearly half the classes (43 per cent) used computers for less than 15 minutes per week. In a further 25 per cent of classes children had 20-30 minutes of computer use per week and in 16 per cent of classes students spent about 35-45 minutes engaged in computer activities. In only five classrooms did students have over one hour of computer use per week each. In two classes there were no computer-based learning activities.

Clearly, results such as these make Alison Armstrong’s concerns about overuse of ICT in classrooms way off beam.

The question of what makes a teacher harness the potential of the technology has long puzzled educators. And it’s not that teachers are Luddites.

Today, most Australian homes have computers. By world standards Australian homes are technologically well equipped. ABS statistics indicate that in 2002, 61 per cent of homes had a computer and 46 per cent had Internet access.

Homes with children under 15 had higher levels of computer ownership, a finding also noted when computer user was surveyed in the OECD’s Program for International School Assessment (PISA).

PISA data from 2000 indicate that nearly 85 per cent of Australian 15-year-olds had access to a computer every day at home. Just over 31 per cent of them accessed the Internet nearly every day and 32 per cent more used the Internet a few times a week.

Any teacher who trained in the last 15 years or so has had “computers in education” classes and learned about incorporating ICT in their pedagogy at university. Education departments and other school authorities have well-developed ICT policies, standards and competence frameworks. Most education authorities run ICT professional development courses. Millions of dollars have been poured into ICT resources and training.

Despite all of this effort, uptake across the board has been slow. Teachers have been described in one national report as having “low level” skills and knowledge.

In 1999 the Ministerial Council for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs launched the National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty First Century that included the directive that students become “confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies, and understand the impact of those technologies on society”.

This initiative has now set the ICT educational agenda, prompting renewed interest in educational ICT developments, and teacher and student ICT competence.

In any industry the “early adopters” are likely to be innovative, visionaries who go the extra mile and research shows there is something different about those teachers who run with the technology.

In the study of primary classes mentioned earlier, teachers of children who used computers most were described as being “motivated”, “creative” and “involved”.

The research showed the main characteristics of teachers in the more “computer-active classrooms” were strong “communication” with parents, “excitement” about teaching, positive attitudes and enthusiasm, and “confidence” and expertise in teaching. In several cases, the teachers were described as “fantastic” or “excellent”.

In classrooms where children averaged more than 35 minutes of computer use per week, teachers articulated a strong commitment to ICT use in learning, were good classroom managers, and tended to be involved in a wider than normal range of school activities.

Indeed, good classroom management strategies have long been regarded as a cornerstone to effective teaching, Teachers in classrooms with the highest levels of computer-use were described as a “great organisers” and always “very busy”.

There is ample evidence from this and other Australian studies and from day-to-day reports from primary and secondary classrooms that there hasn’t been widespread integration of ICT, and especially Internet experiences, into teaching, even when the technologies are available. The question is why?

Data from Australian contexts are helpful in trying to understand reasons teachers have not adopted information technologies for classroom use, as Australians are amongst the most accepting and avid users of new technologies, including computers. Moreover, Australian education systems are relatively homogeneous, schools are modern and well resourced, and teachers are well qualified.

In one sense, slow ICT uptake mirrors schools’ general reluctance to adopt new ideas and their inherent conservatism. In another, the extraordinary impact of ICT on daily life and the efforts of key educational policy makers and educational leaders to equip schools with relevant technologies makes the slow incorporation of technologies puzzling.

Interviews with teachers indicate that limited ICT integration in class, let alone a focus on collaborative, knowledge construction, relates to teachers’ lack of familiarity, not with technology per se, but with educational ICT applications and good pedagogy and classroom management strategies.

Most teachers report difficulty “managing” a classroom focused on children’s individual learning needs, regardless of whether or not computers are used.

According to leading educators, pedagogy in the digital, information and knowledge rich 21st century requires new, less teacher-centred notions about learning and more fundamentally democratic understandings, beliefs and values about classroom practice. Individual teachers must be prepared to alter their conceptions of teaching and learning as change occurs only when new understandings of the tasks and processes are constructed, not simply when technical innovations are introduced.

But teachers say that trying to incorporate computer experiences adds another level of complexity to an already difficulty teaching role. Many say that ICT professional development has not addressed their fundamental need to plan and implement activities at “the chalk face”.

One view is that teachers’ inability to capitalise on computer-based experiences relates to deeply embedded beliefs about what constitutes acceptable and/or appropriate teaching practice. Many teachers still think of the “sage on the stage” model, rather than the empowering ”guide on the side”. They have difficulty imagining a role that places them as facilitators of learning, rather than transmitters of knowledge.

Changing deeply held beliefs about pedagogy requires help from educational leaders. Dr John Schiller at the University of Newcastle believes that school principals have a key role to play in successful integration of ICT in schools.

Speaking at a recent ICT conference he said that, “through their action or inaction (principals) can influence teaching and learning, for example, in how they direct budgets and professional development. They have considerable impact on the organisational and social culture of the school through the type and style of the interventions they make and they can be key facilitators in assisting teachers improve teaching practices. The quantity and quality of their interventions can have considerable impact on teachers’ implementation of ICT”.

Lack of ICT integration in 1980s was not surprising: computers were slow and most educational software poor. But it’s a different story today. The array of technologies is dazzling.

Organisations such as The Le@rning Federation, commercial publishers and technology companies have ensured a supply of pedagogically appropriate digital material to make your head spin. Plus there is access to real-world, real-time data at a keystroke.

Many schools with key ICT initiatives at the leading edge of digital education are providing learning opportunities that improve student outcomes across the board.

Schools like the 200-plus that participated in the RoboCup Junior Open Challenge in September harness technological opportunities for thinking and problem solving. RoboCup gets students involved in artificial intelligence and robotics by building robots that can play soccer. http://www.robocupjunior.org.au/newsRoom.gsat

At leading ICT school Ferney Grove State High School in Brisbane, coordinator Ken Capps says at the base of its success is a robust infrastructure of networked computers all with Internet access. ICT is used extensively across the curriculum and embedded in a range of subjects including English, art, and music. Other applications such as digital portfolios of students’ work ensure that documentation and assessment are rich and up to date.

In Victoria, Di Fleming heads lab 3000, an “education incubator” that aims to build digital design capability. Hosted at RMIT, the incubator offers a highly creative learning environment, where students discover the challenge and creative opportunity of using digital design techniques and applications. It’s education programs by investing in new skills and knowledge.

At the primary school level, Ryde East students in Sydney are learning with a range of technologies including collaborative, knowledge-building tools that help all students get involved in decision-making and problem-solving.

Despite the successes in many schools, the challenge of keeping teachers motivated and skilled is ever present. Recent reports such as Raising the Standards: A proposal for the development of an ICT competency framework for teachers urge improved teacher confidence and competence possibly through a developing a national ICT standards framework.

One area to benefit from ICT developments has been communications and partnerships with parents.

Many schools have comprehensive Web sites with secure entry points so parents can communicate with teachers and access learning plans and other curriculum materials relevant to their children.

Some schools update parents regularly via e-mail including sending the weekly newsletter. Parents also have information on school sporting times, venues and results. In some preschools, parents can access streamed videos of their children’s day-to-day activities.

A new Australian Council for Educational Research initiative, iAchieve at Home, provides an assessment service that enables students to gauge their performance in key academic areas.

Just what future schools will look like is up for grabs. But already ICT has impacted in ways that challenge the old stereotypes of static, bookish, rote learning for many students.

In 2000, the Ministerial Council for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) endorsed Learning in an online world: The school action plan for the information economy. Building on the National Goals of Schooling it says that “all schools will seek to integrate information and communication technologies into their operations, to improve student learning, to offer flexible learning opportunities and to improve the efficiency of their business practices”.

But good policies and intent are not sufficient to ensure integration of ICT into the school curriculum and translating ICT from policy and marketing documents into classroom practice has been an elusive goal over the past decade.

The biggest challenge in the immediate future will be to dismantle the “digital divide”. Today’s best schools are way out front in their technology provision and teaching approaches. They lead the world. At the other end of the spectrum are classrooms that might have a computer that might be used, sometimes, by some children - if they’re lucky.

Clearly, the issue is not just one of resources. The $9 million allocated to Victorian government schools as part of the Bridging the Digital Divide (BDD) Initiative to improve Internet access won’t be much use unless the complex teacher attitudes and beliefs that act as powerful mediators of practice are tackled.

The Education Ministers advisory council’s ICT in Schools Taskforce has the task of monitoring education systems’ ICT progress against the identified goals and strategies of Learning in an Online World. Education authorities have agreed to provide annual progress reports to Ministers. It will be interesting to watch developments in the next few years. Dr Alison Elliott is a Research Director at the Australian Council for Educational Research and an Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of Canberra. She has been involved with educational computing and ICT research since the early 1980s.

References and readings

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003). Household use of information technology, Australia, Cat No. 8146.0, Canberra: ABS

Australian Council for Educational Research (2001). 15-Up Counting, reading, writing and reasoning. How literate are Australia’s students? The PISA 2000 survey of students’ reading, mathematical and scientific literacy skills. Melbourne: ACER Press and OECD

Elliott, A. (2003). Supporting scaffolding processes in collaborative learning environments. In G. Whymark (Ed.) Transformational tools for 21st century minds, Sydney: Knowledge Creation Press, pp. 87-91. ISBN 1876674563 Elliott, A. (2003). Scaffolding ICT practices in pre-service teacher education programs. A model for success. In C. Crawford, N. Davis, J. Price, R. Webber & D. Willis (Eds). Proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, pp. 3507-3513. ISBN 1-880094-47-9 Elliott, A. (2003). Scaffolding thinking skills, Information Transfer, 23(1), pp.16-18.

Schiller, J. (2004). Successful interventions. The Australian primary principal as a key facilitator in ICT integration. Paper presented to the WCCE Conference, Hong Kong. December.

Learning in an online world: The school action plan for the information economy, www.edna.edu.au/onlineworld.pdf

Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (2002). Raising the Standards: A proposal for the development of an ICT competency framework for teachers, Commonwealth of Australia. http://www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/2002/raisingstandards.htm

Making Better Connections: Models of teacher professional development for the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into classroom practice, Commonwealth of Australia. http://www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/2002/professional.htm