Schools of the future

Aren't you all sick of hearing/seeing/talking about what needs to change to transform our schools into the 21st century? Look around - there's plenty of localised innovations in classrooms everywhere. Of course, educators are capable of identifying problems, exploring solutions, refining and sharing their practice, and of course they do! Teachers should no longer be regarded as practitioners in need of support and guidance - though I suppose that's quite useful for many.

It's 2010 ... what did schools look like in the 1950s? And, how far have we come already? This 21st century is just another phase we are going through.

School of the future (1950)

Promoting innovation and transformation

Provision of digital technologies in schools does not by itself produce a transformation of the learning environment and automatic improved learning outcomes. Well, we know this and we also know that effective use of ICT in schools does improve student learning outcomes and achievement. So, how can we support schools experiencing increase in access to digital technologies in schools to realise these potentials?

Here are three sources of information/inspiration that I hope you find useful:

· Innovation is a term we have heard/used a lot – so much so that we probably don’t even think about what we mean by it! We also talk about digital technology transforming teaching and learning – what does that mean!

FutureLab has published a useful handbook, Promoting transformative innovation in schools (great title!) which may help our thinking. Transformative innovation to exploit ideas generated through creativity and insight that challenges and develops new ways to do things may be required to respond to changes in social and technological developments.

Using ICT in schools places demands/expectations of changes in what we teach and how we teach. New technologies have great potential but they can be used to reinforce existing practices. How can we support schools in innovation and transformation?

The handbook discusses, in detail, the elements identified as critical when creating an environment in schools that supports creativity:

· Distributed leadership

· Champions of innovations

· New approaches to teacher learning

· Networks

· Strategies to manage and communicate risk.

Well, worth a read!

· Becta is a government agency in the UK responsible for ensuring that technology is used to improve learning experiences and outcomes for all learners. Enabling Next Generation learning is all about preparing and supporting schools to enhance learning through technology. Last year Becta published a guide for those who work in schools which outlines what needs to be considered and some strategies to support schools, e.g.

o using a self review framework and learning charter to assist in whole-school improvement

o guidance on ensuring schools safeguard learners

o ways to inspire parent engagement (online reporting is due Sept. 2010)

o making learning personal.

· So, what are the likely impacts of digital technologies on teaching, learning and education? Well, each year the New Media Consortium publish the Horizon report which details the trends, challenges and emerging technologies that are worth watching.

o Key trends of interest this year include the importance of supporting students to make sense of the abundance of resources available on the internet; maximising the impact of learning by ensuring that it is timely and efficient; and students working collaboratively in an increasingly multidisciplinary world.

o Critical challenges include the changing nature of the way we prepare students for life, work and study; new forms of publishing and researching (retweets, blogs, tagging) are increasingly relevant but evaluating them is difficult; digital media literacy continues to increase in importance with lack of training for teachers being offset by professional learning; shrinking budgets!

o Technologies to watch that are poised to increase in influence include mobile computing (esp. smart phones and netbooks) and open content (free online materials and access to online learning). Other technologies soon to be influential are electronic books and augmented reality, e.g. Google’s SkyMap.

The influence of ICT on children's learning

A really interesting podcast from FutureLab: what is the impact of digital technology in the ways that children - especially in the early years - learn.

Technology in primary education?



World's have collided and modes have emerged: classroom evidence of changed literacy practices

Maureen Walsh (Australian Catholic University) has put together a very cogent paper that discussed the impact of digital technology on literacy learning - highly recommended reading.

Cybersafety

There really is a plethora of resources and programs designed to address issues related to student safety when using the internet. Outstanding ones include:

• Cyberbullying forum keeps up-to-date information, news, events and so on
• Click - on online technology guide for parents.