Welcome to the Specialist Schools Trust iNet Online Conference series 2004-2005

iNet, international Networking for educational transformation, is the international arm of the Specialist Schools Trust. The aim of iNet is to develop a global network of schools committed to working together and sharing knowledge.

The online conferences are a vehicle that brings together global knowledge on identified themes. These themes have been identified by Professor David Hargreaves in his book, Personalising Learning: Next Steps in Working Laterally, as key to the transformation agenda.

There will be four online conferences in this series, the themes being:

• Student Voice;
• Leadership;
• Learning to Learn; and,
• New Technologies.

Each conference will run for seven days and will feature seven Focus Papers to stimulate discussion and debate. Participants will also benefit from a group of General Papers on each of the four topics, which are written by educators around the world. Each day participants will have the opportunity to debate one of the Focus Papers online, as well as contribute to the General Online Discussion. At the end of the conference, the knowledge shared will be brought together in the form of a publication.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those participating in the online conference. We, at the Specialist Schools Trust, are committed to harnessing the potential of new technologies to develop and share a collective pool of wisdom. This new knowledge will be a powerful force in the transformation of schools. Enjoy the discussion!

Sue Williamson
Director – Affiliation
Specialist Schools Trust

 

New Technologies

Many 5-year-olds spend time every day on a computer, playing and having fun, but also learning about number work, letter recognition, matching colours and many other things. Children are learning differently today (they are able to interact, follow alternative pathways and get instant feedback). This is the first generation of teachers being asked to teach children who are learning in a way that is alien to them. This is a huge challenge for the teaching profession.

The challenge is for teachers and schools to understand this new learning pedagogy. In the past, too many schools simply put computers in front of children without linking the technology to the learning outcomes; too many schools are simply transferring their existing teaching materials into electronic form and calling it e-learning - when it clearly is not! We should not be replicating existing practices; we need to understand and innovate.

Teenagers have high level skills in many ‘youth’ technologies, such as Instant Messenger, texting, iPods/MP3 players, e-Bay, chat rooms, gaming, and many more. How many schools have embraced these technologies? Not many, in fact, IM, which is the most popular software using by teenagers across the globe, has been removed from many school servers, and yet, that young child who sits at the back who would never put their hand up to ask a question in the class might be quite happy to type a question in IM which then appeared in the board. It’s about empowering young people to use the mode of communication with which they are most comfortable. How much more powerful would it be to send a text message to every child in a year group to remind them of a forthcoming deadline than to hand them yet another piece of paper to be rammed into their bags!

In England, the Government commissioned a report into the impact of networked technologies on the educational attainment of pupils. Becta managed the study, covering 60 schools over the period 1999 to 2002. “The principal outcome of the survey is clear and by no means entirely expected: ICT has been shown to be positively associated with improvement in subject-based learning in several areas. That contribution was statistically significant, though not large. In none of the comparisons made between pupils’ expected outcomes and actual scores in National Tests or GCSEs was there a statistically significant advantage to groups with lower ICT use. This is in contrast to the findings of many earlier studies.”(1)

The reason for the change in outcomes from this study may simply be down to the fact that schools are now beginning to understand that the technology needs to be used in a constructive way and not simply to ‘keep them quiet’.

It isn’t just the student contact with new technologies that we should be addressing either, some schools are using wireless technology and video to observe colleagues (without intruding into the classroom) and many schools are allowing parents to become truly involved in their child’s education by being able to access data and scores on a daily basis. A few schools are using the new technologies to give them a more flexible timetable, allowing students to access units of work that are appropriate to their ability, rather than their age.

We are on a journey of understanding how we can fully utilise the immense opportunities that new technologies allow.

Some of the key issues this conference hopes to discuss, therefore, are:

• What are the new technologies?
• How do we use new technology effectively?
• Who will benefit?
• When and where can it be utilised?

Kevin Jones
National Specialism Coordinator: Technology Colleges
Specialist Schools Trust

 

Welcome to the fourth and final Series 1 iNet Online Conference. Series 2 is currently in the planning stages, so stay tuned.

This online conference focuses on the ‘New Technologies’. This is an exciting topic, in an area that is evolving at lightning speed, faster than most of us can keep up with.

The last ten years have been an amazing journey for everyone, especially educators. Every few months new or enhanced technologies arrive and the brilliant horizon of what is possible changes its colour, shape and texture once again.

As this horizon changes, it’s easy to feel like a cloud in the wind, swept along by forces beyond its control. Moving in an uncertain direction, it’s easy to get caught up with the immediate questions of process. In the case of technology, such questions might be: What’s the best brand of computer? Who’s the cheapest internet service provider? Which school has the best student to computer ratio? How much will the cabling cost? Who’ll fix the broken computers?

While it is sensible to ask all of these questions, it is also true to say that this process-centred approach dominated early thinking in education about the emerging new technologies.

However, in recent times there has been a professional maturation in the way educators view the steady stream of new technologies. Some of these developments even astound the digital generation, who sometimes gasp but then quickly incorporate the new technology into their fast-moving lifestyle.

Increasingly, the questions of educators are centring on the nature, quality and depth of student learning. In schools that have moved beyond considering process questions only, the new technology is being astutely reviewed for its capacity to transform curriculum in a way that will enhance learning. It’s as simple as that. In this online conference, Jeff Bates explains how the new technologies are being used at his school to personalise learning.

On Wednesday, Peter Tymms and Christine Merrell will provide a thought-provoking insight into how the new technologies are impacting, and might further impact, on student assessment. In this contentious area, there are more questions than answers.

Increasingly, the impact of the new technology on social relationships will be assessed by schools that see the vital connection. In Kathryn Moyle’s paper on the first day, we will explore the human infrastructure of schools and the social construction of technologies.

This iNet online conference provides an opportunity for educators around the world to learn from their colleagues about how new technologies are impacting on teaching and learning. Participants will soon see that schools, teachers and students are still at very different places on the spectrum, and are asking very different questions. There is a global divide in what new technologies are affordable by schools in different countries. What is also obvious is that educators everywhere are moving forward as fast as they are able, given their constraints, as the new technologies provide amazing opportunities to transform teaching and learning.

What is presented here is a smorgasbord of ideas and practices. There is practical advice and professional reflection for everyone who seeks to learn more about how the new technologies will transform education as we know it - and, more importantly, how we can, with imagination, transform education using the new technologies.

The variety and quality of papers we will read this week are a direct result of the generosity of those educators who have spent hours of their spare time to write for colleagues they may never meet. Participants, please take time to comment on as many papers as you can over this coming week, as each one represents the extraordinary efforts of a busy colleague to share his or her professional insights, for the benefit of students everywhere.

Now, please read and enjoy the papers and I look forward to ‘meeting’ all of you in the online discussions.

 

Debra Brydon
Online Conference Manager
Email: brydon@cybertext.net.au