Most if not all schools that have computers use Ms Office despite other options being available. Developments buy google may change the way we view standard office software, Word Processor, Power Point / Presentation Software, Spreadsheets. The only reasons I can think off why schools will not take advantage of this sort of online software is data retrieval and backup but it does indicate the importance of BANDWIDTH!
Schools for some are not conducive to learning. Many students do poorly at school not because of a lack of ability but because they ‘cannot do school’. Secondary schooling and K-12 schooling is based on an industrial model complete with hierarchical and supporting bureaucratic structures. And some students just cannot reach their potential within such structures. Is it time to yet again rethink existing learning structures? Is it time to actually make some changes rather than look to the past?Classrooms have changed very little over the past 30 years. We still have a preponderance of didactic teaching, lecturing from the pulpit with the teacher being the arbiter of knowledge. Those in the teaching profession can feel trapped and compelled to follow the approaches of the past as it is easier to sail with the wind rather than against it. What can we do to support enthusiastic positive change orientated teaching?
Some teachers and schools have tried to change and the continual reviews of education policy by government indicate a desire for change. The physical structures within which we teach, schools, classrooms have changed little. The black board has been replaced by the white board. Data projectors and computers have replaced over head projectors which do not enhance teaching if they are just used as another way to deliver static text, death by power point is all to familiar. Computers in classrooms often lay dormant or underutilized or maintenance costs are not factored into their purchase and within a few years they become unreliable.
Society unlike schooling has changed drastically in the recent past. The driver of much of this recent change has been globalization and the exponential development of information technology and its interconnection via the Internet. Currently the Internet is changing in a fundamental way. The Internet rather than being a passive experience is changing into a ubiquitous social experiencing, online social networking and blogging is just the beginning. It will be interesting to see if these changes in the internet begin to challenge how we teach or even where we teach.
Those of you who are involved in implementing change within school would be familiar with some of these responses:
“We need more computers in the classroom before we can use technology in our teaching”
“I need more professional development in order to learn how to learn how to use computing in my classroom”
Do you have these responses? What have been your strategies in response to these types of statements?
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