Technology – do I need a hammer or shovel?

Technology – do I need a hammer or shovel?

Technology is a tool that should only be used if it improves the education outcomes of the lesson, or adds a 21st Century Skill to the lesson. It should be possible to regularly improve educational outcomes with technology. It should also be possible to improve outcomes with some good thinking around the pedagogy and no resources at all. Anyone who believes technology is needed in every lesson is stuck in the early 2000's. Back we all thought new toys were awesome!

Learning outcomes first and then a process to achieve those outcomes. More and more teachers are starting to think like this now. Your process might include technology, it hopefully will include some 21st Century Skills.

Find your house plans (curriculum), inspect the timber and nails (students), now do you need a hammer or a shovel to build this thing (resources)?

We’ve seen that shift in the last 3-4 years. 5+ years ago it was certainly 'awesome, let's use this new gadget'. Now people seem to talk about why the technology is being used before they talk about the gadgets. Professional Development days now are often run completely without devices (except maybe tablets for note taking) and they spend the day discussing the pedagogy around technology in education, which is a really positive shift.

I love the fanciest multi-touch 80” LCD and printing my own face in 3D as much as the next nerd. Love your gear, play with your gear, learn its capabilities…then walk away.  Start with the learning outcomes you want your students to achieve, then build your stepping stones to make sure your students can get there.

Program Evolution

Program Evolution 

 

Teaching programs are not static they evolve every year. Only when given the opportunity to evolve can any program reach its potential. The quality of a teaching program sits somewhere on a bell curve. It improves significantly each year for a number of years as a teacher writes, teaches and evaluates and rewrites it. And then re-teaches the same topic the following year.

 

 

 

The graph above is my proposal around how a typical teaching program evolves over a number of years.

 

However programs reach a peak, and after peak they decline in quality. There are many factors that can extend the length that a program can stay close to, or at it peaks. There are many actions that can be taken to maintain and revitalise a program that has started it natural decline.

 

Program Evolution has several implications for schools, administrators and teachers, including:

·         Teachers need the opportunity to teach exactly the same topic and program it for at least a few years.

·         Factors that increase the speed at which a program evolves or extend it time at its peak should be implemented.

·         After a larger number of years teachers need to be teaching different topics, or be lead into action that will revitalise their programing and teaching of the topic.

 

 Some factors that might increase the speed at which a program evolves might include:

 

Some program revitalisation actions might include:

 

There are obviously many more factors that can speed up program evolution and revitalise programs. Each school/department/teacher should be able to identify what will help them achieve these goals, they are flexible and individual.

However there are some common factors which are common to speed up program evolution and revitalise programs. Collaboration, professional development to increase pedagogical knowledge and cloud technology (which effectively allows constant collaboration and updating) are useful for every teacher whichever stage of the program evolution curve their program may be at.