Digital school strategies

Schools need to plan their technology strategies very carefully. There are a lot of factors to consider, including current development of technology and its future proofing, existing systems and interoperability, access and provision of networked resources, skills and capabilities of teaching staff, market forces and socio-economic influences, to name a few. But these are just the tip of the iceberg. A recent interview I did for the New Zealand teachers' Interface Magazine touched on some of these issues, and here I would like to elaborate on some of the answers I gave. My additional comments are in italics:

What are the biggest tech-related challenges facing schools?

It's about encouraging reluctant teachers to adopt, embed and apply new technology effectively within authentic teaching and learning contexts. We also need better in-service training and orientation. If teachers use new interactive whiteboards in the same way they used ordinary whiteboards, they're missing the point, failing to capitalise on the excellent functionality and, worse still, depriving students of diverse interactive learning experiences.

One of the most important digital divides to overcome is the technophobia divide - the wills and the will nots. Often this is the most difficult to bridge, but when undertaken in a sensitive manner, it can be accomplished. With the best will in the world, you are never going to win the hearts and minds of every teacher. But you can win the majority, and to meet the challenge you need to enlist the support of some of the opinion leaders among your teachers. These are often the ones who are already demonstrating best practice, and who are thoughtful and reflective on their own professional engagement. Enlist their support as evangelists and champions of new technologies, and you have won half the battle. Find those positive deviants in your school - you know - the ones who always seem to do things a little differently to everyone else. You will not get much farther though, if the technology is not fit for purpose.  

Training at the point of need is also a must. In service training of teachers, where experimentation and failure are permitted, are essential if the use of new technologies are to be promoted. Sensibly, most teachers are reluctant to use new ideas of technology in their classroom unless they have first tried it out. Give them time to discover for themselves, in a psychologically safe environment, what works and how it works. Let them have time to consider how they can use new technologies to enhance learning in their classrooms. In service training is not just about giving people information. It's also about allowing them to develop their own skills and to ask pertinent questions as they try out their ideas.

What do you think are the key elements schools need to address in a digital strategy?

Anti-cyberbullying guidelines, e-safety and acceptable use policies – all of these are important, but the best way to formulate them is to get teachers and students together around the table to discuss the best ways forward.

Often I see raised eyebrows from teachers and parents when I advocate students as advisers on school internet policies. And yet, in the final analysis, most would admit that children and young people know quite a lot about how to use technology, and many have already learnt where many of the dangers lie in web use. Who better then, to ask to advise on safe and acceptable use of the Web and computers than those who are going to be the most affected by them? If we dismiss the ideas and thoughts of students because 'they are only children', we run the risk of ignoring one of the most powerful resources any school possesses. 

Is there anything you'd like to see schools do differently?

Far too many schools are throwing money at new technology, without fully understanding what it can do for their students. Some purchase large amounts of technology without any real plan for its implementation. First identify the problem and then seek the technology solution that best addresses it.

This is one of the biggest challenges schools face. We see a new, shiny technology, realise we have some money to spend before the end of the financial year (spend your allocation, or have it cut next year!), and end up buying something that we don't yet know how we will use. I have seen many school cupboards full of equipment that was bought but never really used. 

Every school seriously needs to formulate its own strategy for the appropriate procurement and purchase of new technologies. Firstly, each school needs to locate where its unique problems, challenges and needs are. The next step is to consider all of the possible solutions, including technology answers. Once this has been done, decisions need to be made on the best way to address the problems or deficits, and only then should technology be considered as one of the possible solutions. Technology is not always the most effective answer. It should only be purchased if it is seen to be the best answer, where the problem could not have been addressed effectively any other way.  The acid test for the introduction of new technology is: what does this add to learning that could not be achieved any other way? If technology enhances, enriches or extends learning, then it is generally a good idea. If it adds nothing new or does not improve the situation, forget it.

Here is the link to the complete interview for Interface Magazine.

Photo by Bartmoni on Wikimedia Commons


Digital school strategies by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.