This was written on a scrap piece of paper while doing some ‘big thinking’ with Heidi Hass Gable. I’m sharing it exactly as it was written, but adding links to some of my other posts to liven it up a bit… Feedback, as always, is appreciated.
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Students Today
-> relate differently to toys, digital tools and each other, compared to just a few years ago.
-> are not digitally competent in the same way as each other.
-> connect, learn and socialize in online communities that are richer in content and engagement than traditional ways of classroom learning.
Relevance to Teachers
-> Students and teachers have different digital competencies and there is not an intentional roadmap for students or teachers to follow in order to improve their digital literacy skills.
David,
I would probably modify your last statement a bit based on my experience in Abbotsford. I would say that there is no uniform digital roadmap for students and teachers to follow in order to improve their digital literacy skills. But districts (at least Abbotsford) have plans and goals to improve digital literacy. Support for TLITE (and it’s successor), technology helping teachers (full time teachers for each level, K-5, middle, and secondary), technology mentors (classroom teachers involved in helping their own staff), the start website (http://start-learning.ca/), and technology field study training are all tech support plans that encourage staff to integrate technology into the classroom. Seeing this support unfold over the past number of years leads me to believe that Abbotsford does have an intentional roadmap to helping teachers improve their digital competency. All the support in the world doesn’t help though if teachers don’t buy into it. Do others feel the same tech support from their district as I do?
Great comment Clayton!
Here in coquitlam, I agree with you that, while things are really moving, we are still trying to ‘encourage staff’ with a roadmap that they have to choose, and that buy-in is key.
I love that you see all the wonderful things happening and I hope that the rate of change moves from incrimental to exponential.
My statement may have been wrongfully overarching or absolute… but I do believe that there is a long way to go and that we will not get there fast enough without raising the level of concern and thinking about a more global roadmap that intentionally affects all teachers/learners.
Kia ora Dave!
As Clayton, I am intrigued with the last statement. I wonder about this a lot, as the learning in digital competency (at least for kids) has not been formalised.
The result is a copious diversity and a richness of what I call spatial or creative thinking rather than linear thinking. The latter is not what I’d necessarily say was deficient.
My hunch is that formalised instruction tends to be linear and fosters linear thinking. Informal learning tends to foster creative action.
Catchya later
There is a stark difference between intentionally teaching digital competence and empowering teachers to use digital skills to change the paradigm of teaching using technology.
In Burnaby, we have all the things that Clayton talks about. We have a three year strategic plan, a SKIT program to support new to technology teachers, and we have technology support teaching staff to initiate and facilitate technology integration.
All great things, and yet the vast majority of technology integration still looks like primary classes going into a computer lab class and using kid pix.
Teachers need to have the paradigm shifted for them. Once you do this, amazing things happen.
We have dismantled our lab and spread the computers into the classrooms, we have purchased a laptop cart which is always found in a variety of classrooms being used in conjunction with classroom content. We routinely talk about technology being cameras, computers, smartboards, pedometers, heart rate monitors, laptops, cell phones and other digital medias not just computers.
At any given time, there is a plethora of digital medias being used from K-7 in our school. The paradigm has shifted. We have informal social networks through epals, we are using email to connect with international relatives so we can share our reader’s theater, we are using blogs, wikis and google docs to collaborate on projects across the curriculum.
The key is not necessarily giving linear digital training, but rather, allowing teachers the time and the risk free environment to experiment with digital medias. Teachers and students are amazingly creative. I have been blown away by some of the projects that they have come up with. All I have done is introduce them to various software, hardware, web 2.0 tools and let them make mistakes and learn from them.
Let’s not limit their creativity by instituting a set curriculum of skills.