Students Logging Onto New Ways Of Learning

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday June 10, 2008

KATELIN McINERNEY

It's getting harder to find a blackboard in the classroom of the 21st century as more schools embrace technology, writes KATELIN McINERNEY.

Picture this - a classroom in Coonabarabran.

Students sit at their desks and happily talk maths with counterparts in a small school somewhere in the English countryside via a form of technology known as video conferencing.

Something out of an episode of The Jetsons perhaps?

Not anymore.

Technology is changing life as we know it at a rapid speed and while many people struggle to keep up, one group having no trouble whatsoever keeping up with the digital Joneses are schoolkids.

The landscape of a modern classroom has changed enormously in the past decade, with advances in information and communication technology, or ICT, bringing the digital age into schools.

As part of their "education revolution", the Federal Government has made a commitment of $1.2 billion over the next five years that will see grants of up to $1 million allocated to schools to upgrade their ICT, reduce the ratio of computers to secondary students in Years 9 to 12 to one computer between two students, and connect all schools to high-speed broadband internet access.

Under the NSW State Government's Connected Classrooms program, children in public schools around the state will be able to take part in lessons with students from other schools while never leaving their classroom, using interactive whiteboards, which operate like large touch-screen computers, and audiovisual equipment.

University of Wollongong Associate Dean of Education (research) Associate Professor Lori Lockyer said greater funding for technology infrastructure in schools was a result of the growing awareness in the education community that technology is just another part of life for students.

"There is a range of technologies being used in schools these days," Prof Lockyer said.

"This funding will mean there will be less situations where schools are set up with just one or two computer labs and teachers who do want to integrate technology into lessons really have to plan ahead."

Where 10 years ago, "computer time" might have been used as an extension or reward for students, it has now become an integrated part of everyday lessons.

"Students are now involved in web design, website production, movie production and all of that is integrated into the topic areas they are studying," Prof Lockyer said.

"Greater access to new technology like animation programs and sound recording software allows students to have more in-depth, creative freedom and having a laptop enables them to continue that work at home."

Prof Lockyer said the roll-out of the latest technology in schools will put more students on an even technological footing.

"We hear in the news all the time about the growing number of young Facebook users, but they're not all doing that," she said.

"Having more technology in classrooms allows those students who may not have access to technology outside of school the opportunity to engage.

"It also gives students who perhaps use the technology at home for social networking a stronger understanding of the link between technology and learning."

Prof Lockyer said while the Federal Government's education revolution looked good on the surface, a number of issues would have to be overcome.

"We should not expect that when these computers land in classrooms, we're going to have immediate results," she said.

"It is not just about the infrastructure - the computer that sits on the desk - there are other issues like connecting those computers to the rest of the world."

Prof Lockyer noted many schools lacked adequate secure storage space for expensive equipment and most did not have enough electrical power points to cater for an increased number of digital devices.

"Teacher professional development is another big issue," she said.

"Teachers need to know what this roll-out of new technologies means for their teaching, and that training has to come hand in hand with the technology."

Prof Lockyer said teachers needed to be equipped with the technological knowledge to cater for students at varying skill levels.

"Teachers need to know how to develop more in-depth and creativity-based tasks that allow students to express themselves in multi-modal ways, using sound and visuals as well as text," she said.

Prof Lockyer said the variety of options technology gave teachers meant students now had greater freedom in their learning.

"Student learning has become much more self-directive because teachers might set main tasks set for students and they might then have choices in what kinds of tools or strategies they engage in to complete that task," she said.

"In the research we've done, students feedback to us that they love having that ability to have a say and being able to choose a topic within a certain framework."

But Prof Lockyer said teachers still needed to plan carefully to set those parameters for their students.

"That framework is set by the teachers and relates to the syllabus," she said.

"So while students may have more technology skills, teachers are still the experts at teaching and expert at understanding what the curriculum should look like and in that sense their professionalism will always be needed - that will never go away."

And neither will other tried and true teaching methods.

"There is still a place for books and the old glue and glitter approach to creating a project," Prof Lockyer said.

"Just because you have a laptop does not mean you should be on it all the time.

"It is a tool that students can use to express themselves and for information gathering but it is not necessarily going to be appropriate to use it in all lessons."

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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