When digital devices are being introduced to a school or classroom because they are the ‘in’ thing – the fashionable classroom accessory – and they are crammed on to the existing structure they will fail. The status quo has not been changed and so these digital devices are simply being used as expensive pens and exercise books.
To get improved results, rigorous innovative pedagogical planning, based firmly on the learning needs (differentiation) of the students is a must. Digital devices used in teaching and learning are not the end – they are merely a means to an end. What is important is how the technology can enhance the educational objectives. The big question is what educational objectives are being pursued? For the purposes of this article I am using a hypothetical classroom where the following universally important overarching educational objectives are being focussed on. First is to motivate each student to become intrinsically engaged. Second is to grow the professional knowledge and development of the teaching staff so that the school becomes a learning community. Third is to develop in the students an ability to reflect on their development as a learner and thus learn how they learn best; but also to provide the teaching staff with the perspective of a learner’s view. The next question is how can the use of digital devices enhance these objectives? The short answer is to change the focus in the classroom from the traditional teaching model with the focus on the teacher and the way the teacher teaches, to a student centric approach with an emphasis on the learner and how each student learns – differentiation. Thus new and different practices and processes are required that disrupt the status quo, requiring both teachers and students to unlearn and relearn. Having mobile devices (iPads, iPhones, notebook computers and more) available anytime anywhere is the future. Their availability before school, at lunch time, after school and at home opens up 24/7 learning and with it the learning through collegial interaction. The teacher role becomes one of mentor and coach. For any individual school, it may still be several years down the track before this anywhere anytime can be, but it should be in the long term plan or worse equity issues will eventuate: for others anywhere anytime is already the situation. However, despite where an individual school is at, a start can be made on the objectives discussed here, with whatever devices are available. Putting the learner in control Video lessons, or as a second preference webinar type lessons, is an example of the use of technology to match the above learning objectives, because the student is in control of the pacing. An example is student note making: a crucial aspect of student learning. In the traditional classroom as the teacher teaches the lesson students attempt to take verbatim notes. However, this is ineffective as the pace of the lesson does not allow for the analysing and evaluation of the lesson that leads to the precision and accuracy that note making requires. With video, the reflective student, by using the pause button, is able to provide the time they need to get their head around the content, sort it out, write it down and then move on without missing part of the lesson, and therefore having learning blanks. When the teacher is teaching there is no pause button. Likewise with the impulsive student. In their case they can hit the pause button while all those ideas flashing round in their heads are slowed down, sorted and added to the notes. As with the reflective student no part of the lesson is thus a blank while the teacher moved on and their imagination flowed. With the lesson on video, the teacher is freed to cruise the classroom, with their formative assessment mentor or coach hat on, providing instant feedback, including the correction of any misconceptions. Notes should also be considered a work in progress; moderated, added to, or docked as new knowledge or greater understanding is found. The availability of the video lesson which can be accessed anytime anywhere means that when this updating is done the original can be accessed to check back on. There is no way a teacher delivered lesson can be re-visited like this. Transferring the learning into long term memory Transferring the learning into long term memory will not just happen on its own; it must be consciously made to happen. Students making their own video to teach a new concept to a fellow student or fellow students do this. It is the metacognition – analysing what needs to be included, evaluating, creating – that is the vehicle for this transfer. An In School Change Agent Sustaining innovation requires a change agent who has not only a rapport with the grass roots (the classroom teachers) but also a pragmatic, personal practical knowledge of the realities of the innovation in the day to day running of the classroom. Thus to be successful the change agent is not some top down outside hiring, here today gone tomorrow, but a bottom up grass roots part of the permanent long term school environment. This idea is supported by an unpublished research paper by Rebecca Hayes from Mary Washington University in Virginia, which looked at why some New Zealand schools were able to innovate successfully. While these grass roots leaders they were not trendy Jack or Jill’s or mere journey men or women, they demonstrated a passion about the developing practice. Moreover, this passion included a willingness to share the materials and expertise that they were developing with others. Through this other teachers came to view them not only as the local guru, but also team players helping to develop a learning community. Principals must nurture these people. Thus some recognition within the formal hierarchy of the school, for such a leader, provides not only an expectation that the key leadership in the school support the continued development of the innovation and its continued improvement, but also publically affirms and supports such a leader. Such recognition does not need to eat into school budgets or scarce management units. In my school such recognition was provided through a title, such as Director of …… and a couple or three non-contact periods. Assessment As teachers and the schools they work in embrace innovative student centric teaching and learning, such as the video lessons suggested above, they need to remain grounded. Exciting as it all is, all need to assure themselves that the curriculum is being taught more effectively and that the teacher professional development to promote and sustain this is happening. In this sense, assessment is all about being in a critical continuous learning mode. A proven way of doing this is through qualitative analysis where teacher s regularly meet to share narrative stories of their classroom experiences about critical moments, paradoxes, social interactions and more. These stories are then reflected on. One way of doing this is having the concept of more as the learning objective. Is there more here still to see and understand? What more is there that we can do in the future? In this sense it is a professional development growth model. As the stories are told and reflected on specific personal practical knowledge is developed and deeper learning (deeper mental – models) is shaped and reshaped. As a result the daily classroom practice moves from good to great – from the ordinary to the leading edge. Moreover the practitioners have control and therefore ownership. The frequency of these story telling sessions is crucial. Research by Karen Ruffner from the University of Wisconsin found that to meet weekly was the ideal but every other week was more practical. Monthly or longer was not so successful. The best time frame is 30 to 45 minutes. Summaries of these sessions need to be written up assiduously. Even over a short period of time they become an important record of the journey that the staff, the students and perhaps the parents have made to lift the calibre of the teaching in the school. Teacher story-telling and metacognitive reflection is only half of the required feedback. The other half comes from the students’ reflections on how the teaching and learning in the classroom appears to them. By making mandatory the use of the conjunction because, the students are forced to think at higher levels, leading to deeper learning. Apart from the information that this reflection provides to each student to prepare them for life-long learning it is a check on whether the teachers have got the more side right. Where the two coincide the signal is full steam ahead, but where they differ it is a red light to re-think. To conclude, “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” John Dewey. ALAN COOPER