Winter 2006

The ICT agenda

The Ne(X)t generation

Jane Hunter and Sue Beveridge reflect on new understandings of teaching and learning by examining teacher engagement with innovative ICT.

Constructing learning to engage the ‘digital natives’ requires teachers to know what is significant in the lives of young people. The choices teachers make in deciding what digital content should be exposed through what medium, using what device, is paramount if learning with embedded information and communication technology (ICT) is to be engaging and motivating. This idea is not necessarily new, however it is possible that the components of a fresh technology equation in the 21st century may transform teaching and learning in schools and colleges inhabited by today’s ‘net generation’.

That equation is:
digital resources +
interactive whiteboards +
collaborative tools
= transformative pedagogy for the classroom

From equation to practice

Consider two very different scenarios:

1. Danielle teaches in a government primary school in NSW. She uses Teaching and Learning exchange (TaLe— www.tale.edu.au) to search for Virtually Archibald, an award winning visual arts resource produced by the Centre for Learning Innovation. Her year 5 class is studying artistic portraiture using authentic examples displayed on the interactive whiteboard at the front of the classroom. Each student works at a computer. Debbie is able to monitor their understanding of the concept through an online forum tool in the learning management system she used to design the unit of work. The meta-language students use to describe portraits is high level. Every student responds to the forum conversation, including those who don’t usually contribute in face-to-face discussions.
2. Jenny teaches in a small rural government primary school in drought-affected NSW. She has recently attended a professional learning workshop at her school to find out about TaLe. Using this education portal, she has discovered The Le@rning Federation (TLF) digital resources and objects for counting and number work which she uses to stimulate learning for those students with intellectual disabilities in the moderate to severe range. One child, nearly 11 years old, is practising counting to ten. She finds a pencil difficult to hold; instead, she touches the interactive whiteboard at the front of the classroom to move the ladybirds when the answer is correct. When all the ladybirds are counted, they dance on the screen and she dances on her mat.

Digital resources

Discovering high quality digital resources through education portals such as TaLe enables teachers to access multiple streams of information, to set up frequent and quick interactions with content that can then be integrated into learning for students. This portal has over 9200 searchable links to resources, including entry to collections in cultural institutions and outside agencies.

Ongoing evaluation of TaLe, based on user feedback and testing, suggests teachers value the ‘sifted nature’ of an education portal whose main role is to provide quality-assured, relevant digital content.

Teachers need to see the immediate usefulness of content available on targeted portals to be persuaded to embed digital resources into learning. In 2004, the British Educational Commvunications and Technology Agency (BECTA) asserted that teacher use and exploration of digital resources was contingent on ‘ease of access, accuracy and perceived relevance to syllabus content’.

TLF learning objects and resources currently being developed by Curriculum Corporation are providing teachers with excellent subject matter to integrate. Peter Freebody, in his 2006 report of early-stage implementation, draws our attention to how teachers and students who have already used the learning objects see benefits in their use.

There is also a plethora of material best described as digital game-based learning (DGBL). Game-based taxonomies, for example in The SIMS 2, align with learning taxonomies in human society and its environment (HSIE); science; and personal development, health and physical education (PDHPE). This software presents the user with complex issues, constantly requires input from the learner, and then provides feedback.

How to maximise the potential of games resources, and how and why they are effective in learning is not well understood. Van Eck says we need to know ‘not about what the game is, but what it embodies and what learners are doing as they play a game’.

Interactive whiteboards

If subject matter is engaging, teachers can use motivating hardware to tap into what Van Eck declares to be ‘the exceptional visual literacy skills of digital natives’. At the Centre for Learning Innovation (CLI), we have observed that when teachers use content from an education portal such as TaLe on an interactive whiteboard, students view their teachers as making a real attempt to connect to their world.

Teachers enrich learning with a tool such as an interactive whiteboard by taking pupils, through online conferencing or web cams, to authentic environments—from national parks and museums to overseas classrooms. The learning can be paced more quickly, can use inductive reasoning and can be more relevant to students than a static resource like a textbook.

Collaborative tools

Interactive whiteboards sit mouse-in-hand with collaborative tools like learning management systems (LMS)—such as Moodle and Blackboard— and some of the mobile technologies. The mobile phone and LMS and are not new ICT tools but are rapidly being enhanced by developers to embed technology relevant to student learning.

In a recent trial of one such LMS in a number of Sydney schools, teachers believed the forum and chat tools in the application were highly effective in supporting students with different learning abilities. When students worked on computers in a structured learning sequence, the teacher was able to monitor their understanding of learning concepts.

Another project comprised of a number of pilot studies carried out at NSW Tertiary and Further Education (TAFE) exemplifies enhanced personalised learning using the digital resources afforded by collaborative tools such as mobile phones and handheld devices. This group of students used collaborative tools to create oral texts. The project showed that ‘it is possible to create the conditions for students to find and use their voices with handheld devices that can dial-in/up and download information to websites … students can then use short message service (SMS) and email to communicate with their teacher’.

Transformative pedagogy for the classroom

When all parts of the fresh equation are added together sequentially, we see the potential for learning in today’s classrooms to be transformed so that it is more aligned with life in the 21st century. Frameworks for effective pedagogy sit underneath this equation. These might be composed of authentic elements from quality teaching, productive pedagogy, personalised or connected learning.

What remains clear in closely examining this education algorithm is that the teacher is central to the equation. International research, practices in Australia, and observations from studies and resources the CLI is involved in developing suggest this transformation is already underway for many teachers.

And for those who are beginning to feel just a little uncomfortable with their role as ‘digital immigrants’, the migration is gathering momentum—especially in classrooms like those of Danielle and Jenny.

References

British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) ICT Research (2004). ‘A Review of the Research Literature on Barriers to the Uptake of ICT by Teachers’, available at www.becta.org.uk/research/research.cfm?section=1&id=3310

Freebody, P (2006). ‘Early-stage use of The Le@rning Federation’s Learning Objects in Schools: results of a field review’, available at www.thelearningfederation.edu.au

Prensky, M (2001). ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’, available at www.marcprensky.com/writing

Van Eck, R (2006). ‘Digital Games-Based Learning: it’s not just the digital natives who are restless’, Educause, pp.17–26, available at www.socialstudygames.com

Sue Beveridge (left) is assistant director at the CLI in NSW Department of Education and Training.
Jane Hunter (right) is a senior project officer on the TaLe team at the CLI.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au