Laptops? Desktops? Making choices…
I am often asked my opinion about what to buy or how to organise technology in schools. I am in a privileged position working with 17 ITCPD cluster around NZ. That is a lot of schools I am lucky enough to visit and a lot of teachers and principals I converse with. I see an huge range of different set-ups in schools from the traditional computer suite to 1-1 programmes.
What works best and what would I recommend? Well that’s a really hard question to answer as I have seen every scenario work really well and allow for the integration of technology into learning but equally have seen the other side of the equation where the same set up in another school is not effectively used. We know that it is not the technology that makes for effective elearning pedagogy. Sure the access to technology is a factor but it is the understanding of and deliberate acts of teaching using technology that make it happen successfully and seamlessly.
It is hard to recommend any particular setup. Do you have 2 or 3 desktops in classes supported by mobile pods of laptops? Do you use netbooks as learning is increasingly happening in the cloud? Are laptops the only way forward? I know schools that only have 1-2 computers in each class that do amazing stuff, and then know schools that have huge almost unlimited access to computers who do pretty ordinary stuff.
What leading schools are clearly doing is projecting the way the want technology being used in classrooms in 2-3 years which is predominantly cloud based and increasingly mobile. If you look at the trends from Horizon reports, UNESCO or BECTA they support this direction as well.
My current line of thought is a little different. I am really keen on giving teachers the flexibility to makes these decisions themselves. i.e. If you have a clear budget, why not ask a teacher how they want to spend their allotment, so that the purchase clearly aligns to their pedagogical approach. They may choose laptops or even ipads, whatever. While this can be complicated and comes with lots of questions, is there really a one size fits all to a technology roll-out or should a teacher have the flexibility to choose what they use, just as they do with every other resource they use in their teaching?
Does every classroom need to have an equal share. I know that in the past I have certainly gone about strategic planning by stating, “Every class will have 3-4 desktops supported by a mobile pod of ten laptops for each team.” etc.
But should we have moved beyond this now?
I had a recent conversation with a principal who is establishing a new school. He can’t decide on IWBs or the flat screen teaching stations, so instead appointed staff will possibly get an allowance of $4000 to use either way they see fit. I think taht is just fantastic.
Sure there are lots of questions raised by using this approach. What happens when the teacher moves on? How do you manage and support a range of different technologies? What if a teacher makes the wrong decision? What happens if the need for a certain technology is no longer relevant? and so on.
But I am looking at it from this perspective: They whole process of deciding what to buy fits directly in the ‘teaching as inquiry‘ approach and would really make teachers examine their elearning pedagogy. The use/purchase of technology would be directly related to the needs of the students and the teacher’s approach/pedagogy. The teacher would be required to research, visit and answer any questions to reinforce their decision.
30 ipod touches may be a much better investment for students lacking fluency and comprehension skills rather than 6 laptops and a projector.
Have we depersonalised our teachers own elearning pedagogy by deciding what technology they should use?
What do you reckon?
Useful pondering, Nick – this is a question that perplexes many
I’ve no issue at all about your thinking about empowering teachers to make strategic decisions that fit their particular pedagogic style – you mention inquiry as explicitly stated in the curriculum framework.
I’m interested in your dismissal of the internet capable, mobile devices. The substance of your argument is premised on empowering teachers to make the choices about the technology they want to use. Another perspective to consider is that it should be the learners who make that decision – and where they do or can, the overwhelming evidence is that they’d choose some sort of mobile technologies. I’m not suggesting that it is therefore wrong to pursue some of the thinking you put forward here – just that we mustn’t neglect the fact that it’s more likely to be the students, not the teachers, who make these technology choices into the future.
A school I visited recently had done preliminary budget modelling that demonstrated that if it decided to use the money it had budgeted to upgrade a lab to instead purchase a set of netbooks, this would go a long way to providing a netbook for every student in the year 9 intake, and that if they then set up a scheme for the students to contribute back just a few dollars a week over three years, the net result would be a high level of student ownership of the devices and an income stream that can fund future purchases.
It’s not an ‘either-or’ – definitely needs to be both, as we transition to the ‘brave new world’
What a great provocative post. Enjoyed the thinking and reasoning in this Nick. I am thinking the same dilemma at the moment, do we have 3 computers each class or give them to those who utilize them effectively? Aligning technology with own teachers pedagogy and using the teaching as inquiry approach is great. Certainly makes me think about our purchasing.
@Derek
Hi Derek and thanks for your thoughts.
When I was writing the post I was thinking about the student directed choice issue as well but decided to not include that in my thoughts, maybe as I am still clarifying that and also exactly what that means for primary aged students. Year 9 upwards would generally be better placed to make informed choices about the technology they use and then the teacher harnessing that technology for learning puts yet a further slant on the pedagogical angle.
Also, just to clarify, my intention was not to dismiss any technology, netbooks included. The point is that we should consider adding another level to the decision making process by inquiring into individual teacher teaching styles and the needs of the children. Too often decisions are made excluding these factors. In my experience and what I see happening is that beyond a brainstorming/discussion session with the whole staff, it is 3-4 people or less who make the decisions about new purchases. Yes, visits may be made to other best practice schools etc and the question “what does this mean for our school?” asked and discussed but seldom at a personal level rather the global school wide perspective.
That ‘personalised learning’ we so often talk about in terms of our students is often not necessarily mirrored for our staff.