Teachers and Transformational Learning /ICT
International Reflections
Some say, in thinking about teaching and learning
“A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way
for others.”lately, it seems that most people want to blame the teacher for the problems in our countries and burn out those currenly in the profession. I think many conversations about teaching and learning have put out the desire of many to be teachers, and have saddened those who effort to make change in places where it is very difficult.
The problem is that the world and what we know about learning has changed. In many places in the world educational practice has not changed.
Many education leaders point their fingers at the teacher as the problem .
If you have ever taught, anywhere one has to consider what
permission do you have to show your skills , and , who decides how much
you have invested in the school, what resources are given to the pupil, and to the teacher and most importantly, what kind of support is there for teaching, and learning and community support. Those things are decided in places where teachers rarely go or are invited.
In the age of ICT, learning technologies are undergoing an accelerating transformation and many teachers have little support of any kind for the kind of transformational changes to teaching and learning.
How do our respective national goals affect teaching and learning?
Have they been achieved/ Is there a method for sharing case studies that
can be applied world wide and that share promising practices?
What can we as educators do when faced with these problems and to what extent do these problems exist?
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
The MDG goals are ends in themselves, but they are also the means to a
productive life, to economic growth, and to further development. A
healthier worker is a more productive worker. A better educated worker
is a more productive worker.
Target 1a: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than
a dollar a day
1.1 Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day
1.2 Poverty gap ratio
1.3 Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
Target 1b: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for
all, including women and young people
1.4 Growth rate of GDP per person employed
1.5 Employment-to-population ratio
1.6 Proportion of employed people living below $1 (PPP) per day
1.7 Proportion of own-account and contributing family workers in total employment
Target 1c: Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger
1.8 Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age
1.9 Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy
consumption
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target 2a: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of
primary schooling
2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education
2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of
primary
2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 3a: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
3.1 Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary
education
3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
In the Conversation about Preparing for the 21st Century
Teachers are often the scape goat, the one’s held accountable for the failure of education to educate. However, the real reasons often stem from problems that the MDG goals seek to mitigate.
It is important for the economic growth of any country that they have a workforce prepared for the 21st century. In the future, all nation will need a workforce equipped in literacy ,reading, math, engineering and science.
In order for transformational change, a whole generation with the capacities for creative thinking and for thriving in a collaborative culture which we today define as participatory needs to be in place.
We need workers who see problems as opportunities and understand that solutions are built from a range of ideas and resources. But of course, technology is but a part of this new learning. However, one problem rooted in the problems that MDG goals seek to solve is
access . Access and knowledge and expertise in digital media and tools. Technofluency with the tools available.
In a recent computational science workshop researchers complained that the access to classrooms is often denied to them based on local Internet safety standards.
Who Decides What we Teach, How we Teach and Supports our Efforts? Our Learning? Our Staff Development?
Ministers of Education decide policy.
Administrators define the
learning place and how learning will take place within the confines of
the educational community. In many countries a number of people who
never interact in the classroom define policy . Often they
may not have access to the latest in educational research that points
the way to achievement..
ICT
The use of the Internet and multimedia have transformed the world,
but not touched education in many places. With the tiniest of fingers
children with the right tools can reach out and touch the world. If
they have the tool. If the teacher has some skills and access and if
the system which provides education has any plan for the infusion of
technology wonderful things can happen.
There is the Digital Divide
Without access, future workers lack the ability to obtain the teaching , learning and understanding to be globally competitive in the 21st century. Traditionally, the digital divide is defined in terms of
access to computers and Internet , I will amend this to include the access to digital tools.
Digital exclusion is part of a broader divide contributing to social
and economic exclusion of people Multiple aspects: economic,
geographic, languages, gender, etc.
The Knowledge Divide
The digital divide influences an even more alarming divide – the
knowledge divide
Closing the digital divide will not suffice to close the knowledge
divide for access to useful, relevant knowledge is more than a matter
of technology access .Growing concern over the commoditization of
knowledge (knowledge for sale) is a problem as well as the language of
the product or the cost.
Knowledge, both basic and applied, is growing exponentially
World knowledge base doubles every 2-3 years
Similar growth trends in digital learning technologies
A problem is the source of the knowledge. Does it come from the
culture in which it is taught. Is the information , and the language made accessible for teaching and learning through access to technology
The Gender Divide
Teacher education should (and can) play a leadership role globally in the inclusion of and access to for all students
We know that in most parts of the world the majority of teachers are women.
If any of this looks familiar, it is because it is a message that Dr. Paul Resta has started to share.
Why Gender? Gender refers to accompanying social behaviors. Gender is something is accomplished through interactions with others, yet incumbent within social institutions (West & Zimmerman 1987). It is also a concept fraught with social and cultural connotations. Traditionally, women are expected to be “feminine”: sensitive, emotional, and nurturing. Men are expected to be “masculine”: assertive, analytical and unemotional (Kimmel 1995; 2000).
Gender roles are socially constructed through institutions such as family, media, religion, education, and are pervasive in daily routines. Gender roles frame actions and shape behaviors.
What Does Family Have to Do with It? Within the family context, Gender is shaped through interactions between men and women and actively shape their expectations of one another. Therefore, everything we do is affected each gender’s performances and actions. Within the family context, gendered interactions between men and women actively shape their expectations of one another and their performances. For example, the traditional household division of labor often presumes that women are primarily responsible for domestic work (West
& Zimmerman 1987).
Many gender related stereotypes are perpetuated through different cultures and countries.
Essentialist ideas claim that women are born to be wives and mothers because of their anatomical and hormonal differences from women. Women are presumed to be emotional and nurturing in nature, and therefore the caregivers of the household, family and friends. Men are presumed to be physically stronger than women, and therefore the instrumental breadwinners for the family.
In contrast, socialization arguments look to the different ways in which
girls and boys are brought up, with girls not encouraged to have scientific or interests in digital learning technologies. (Mann 1994; Spertus 1991; Frenkel 1990; Looker & Thiessen
We must also remember the rules of the culture, the society in which women are raised.
If there is no access, that is a part of the problem. If there is no understanding of the role of women, there is another problem.
New Areas to Probe
• Cyberinfratructure (CI) – Science and
Student Imagination,
• Innovation, Computational Thinking,Robotics
• Problem Solving -Applied Math and Science and Engineering
Emerging Technologies to Investigate
• Cloud Computing,
• OLPC, and or mobile device use in transformational ways.
• High Performance Computing.
• Ubiquitous technologies (handhelds, clickers, cell phones, etc.)
See the illustration here for a sort of technical fluency.
http://www.tpack.org/tpck/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.tpack.org/tpck/images/tpck/b/b1/Tpack-contexts-small.jpg