Why is education ICT lagging business and government?

 This just released report from EU Commission staff is a down-to-earth and impressive report on progress in implementing ICT goals in education in the EU since the Lisbon Declaration in 2000.

In short, they say that the impact of ICT on education and training has not yet been as great as had been expected. There has been success in building and using infrastructure and teachers generally see ICT as beneficial for learning, but the impact has not been anywhere near the impact of ICT on business and government. The report suggests that much more needs to be done to:

a. embed ICT tools in education systems so that these can be used in multiple ways: administration, communication, learning, etc. as is commonly done by government and business

b. enable much better use of ICT for lifelong and informal learning

c. leveraging innovation and change so that education becomes part of an innovation-friendly society.

"...ICT needs to be seen as a key tool for modernisation and improvement of all aspects of education and training."

A main theme of the report is that "ICT has transformed society and the economy" and is a major lever for innovation, and this has not yet occurred in education. They point to the potential of ICT to support "learner-centred guidance, group work and inquiry projects" but this has not happend on a large scale yet.

It is an often repeated story. The potential is there but is not yet being achieved. Why not?

We can easily list a large number of excuses, but I like to look to comparisons with other sectors and if one looks at two immediate examples: imagine an airline that has not got a comprehensive online booking system, or a newspaper that has no online presence. Innovation and commercial pressure have forced these businesses to change and change they have. The newspaper business is undergoing a revolution that no amount of traditional journalist huffing and puffing can resist.

There is no equivalent pressure on the education sector - yet. In fact there is a renewed push in some quarters for a return to more traditional modes of teaching - particularly in defining curriculum outcomes.

Airlines and newspapers have some very simple fundamental outcomes to focus on: passenger numbers, and sales of newspapers and advertising. If education could focus more closely on some measurable outcomes then we could be more responsive to the new ICT rich environment that allows new ways of functioning. What if we specified and committed ourselves as a society to some clear student outcomes like: ability to research, sift evidence and make considered judgements, problem solving skills, ability to work in a team and achieve tasks, ability to tell stories and communicate in powerful ways, and so on. In other words, be specific about high level learning goals and teachers would innevitably turn to ICT to help them achieve these. Not because it is fashionable to use ICT but because ICT is very powerful support for many of these outcomes. I am making an assumption here that high level learning is frequently supported most effectively by wise use of ICT. I am confident that there is plenty of evidence that this is true.

Sounds simple but obviously isn't. I think we have got our priorities wrong in implementing ICT. We have focused too much on the technology and learning what it can do, then seek to bend and twist our teaching to take advantage of these tools. If we focused more on what we want students to be able to do, and then turned to ICT to assist when appropriate, we would have our minds on the main game and turn to ICT when needed. Too many ICT promoters (like me) have been, or appear to be, focused on the technology rather than what the learning is intended to be.

The practical problem with this approach is that it does not address the need for teachers and administrators to be working simultaneously on the chicken and the egg. While focusing on the egg of outcomes, one needs to be simultaneously working on how to build a chicken. By this convoluted metaphor I mean that I am asking teachers to focus on learning outcomes and simultaneously be learning about a wide range of ICT applications so that when the need arises, he/she can turn to the appropriate ICT tool to assist in the learning.

But then I guess journalists and editors and publishers have been forced to do this sort of thinking and acting.

Tags: staff development sictas professional learning school development
Posted at 11:18AM Oct 20, 2008 by John Travers  |  Comments[1]