It's about a month since I started working as an "ICT facilitator" at this international school in Europe. Other schools use titles such as tech integrator, infuser. I was very happy to take on this job, being interested in using computers in the classroom. I don't have any specific computer-based education; just a Physics degree and lots of experience in schools, latterly in a one-to-one laptop environment in the Far East. For the last four years, I have been trying to teach my subjects using as great a variety of computer technology as I could manage. Since I accepted the job, six months before I started here, I have been asking myself and others "What does an ICTF do?" And I still don't know. I think no-one else does either, because there can't be a single way of doing it, it depends on the environment you find yourself in. Sure, the name tells you that the person is facilitating, which implies "making easier", but that's a result not a prescribed activity in itself. How do you achieve this?
Well, I've been casting around, attempting to profit from my status as a blank canvas. What have I been doing? There are about 80 teachers in my department whom I'm charged with facilitating in ICT. Inevitably, there is a wide range of experiences and abilities in using computers in the classroom, as well as a spectrum of positive and negative attitudes. I have undertaken to interview all 80 of the teachers, but have only met about one per day since I started - I intend to accelerate and also maybe to automate the process. I have written a short questionnaire which takes about 30 minutes to administer. It asks four questions:
Well, I've been casting around, attempting to profit from my status as a blank canvas. What have I been doing? There are about 80 teachers in my department whom I'm charged with facilitating in ICT. Inevitably, there is a wide range of experiences and abilities in using computers in the classroom, as well as a spectrum of positive and negative attitudes. I have undertaken to interview all 80 of the teachers, but have only met about one per day since I started - I intend to accelerate and also maybe to automate the process. I have written a short questionnaire which takes about 30 minutes to administer. It asks four questions:
- Which hardware do you use in your teaching?
- What software do you use in your teaching?
- What is your previous experience of an ICTF?
- What would you like an ICTF to do?
The idea is to get an idea of where the faculty is right now in its technology abilities and where it thinks it wants to go. These are both very interesting questions to help me identify what is expected and what is needed (not necessarily the same things). I haven't proceeded as fast as I wished with this information-gathering, and although the process is revealing and serves to introduce me to every teacher in the school, I'm thinking about automating it either with a survey or getting groups to fill it in in department meetings. I hope I don't have to resort to that: I'll just have to speed up, I guess.
I've also spent a few days out of school visiting three other international schools in the region. This was extremely instructive. I saw schools in various stages of development, applying different solutions according to their circumstances and policies. The process of visiting the schools and chatting with fellow ICTFs and teachers enabled me to think aloud about the various problems and solutions. The people I met have varying experiences and ideas, but in my opinion, we are very far from an agreed paradigm.
One of the issues which our school is shortly to face, and the schools I met already are facing, is what devices to put in the hands of the students. We are committed to a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) arrangement, but that is still pretty open. The principal decision, I think, is whether all of the devices should be the same. Several of my colleagues here, like me, have worked in schools where students were mandated to use an Apple laptop, and we are all pretty happy with the experience. You can imagine how the same model would work with Windows machines or even identical tablets, but the option most seriously under consideration is one in which the devices are not the same. Sometimes I welcome this prospect, at other moments, I agree with the tech director I met who argues that too many classroom activities would devolve to a lowest common denominator of students using word processing. This is the proverbial "expensive pencil". I need to find a school which has tried this and find out how it went.
I have also been working in more reactive ways, helping teachers who seek me out; loaning teachers cameras, microphones etc; teaching MS students a course in "ICT in action". That's the stuff of my job description.
But most of the work so far has been talking and asking questions. Now that I've been here for a month dealing with individuals, it's time to put on a more public face. At the start of next week, I'll issue a newsletter, about the world of ICTF at the school. Amongst other things I'll be inviting teachers to a course on teaching using wikis - the newsletter will also be a wikipage, that being my single favourite teaching technology.
At the end of this month, there are a couple of questions which have struck me as the key to plotting the way forward. They are:
I've also spent a few days out of school visiting three other international schools in the region. This was extremely instructive. I saw schools in various stages of development, applying different solutions according to their circumstances and policies. The process of visiting the schools and chatting with fellow ICTFs and teachers enabled me to think aloud about the various problems and solutions. The people I met have varying experiences and ideas, but in my opinion, we are very far from an agreed paradigm.
One of the issues which our school is shortly to face, and the schools I met already are facing, is what devices to put in the hands of the students. We are committed to a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) arrangement, but that is still pretty open. The principal decision, I think, is whether all of the devices should be the same. Several of my colleagues here, like me, have worked in schools where students were mandated to use an Apple laptop, and we are all pretty happy with the experience. You can imagine how the same model would work with Windows machines or even identical tablets, but the option most seriously under consideration is one in which the devices are not the same. Sometimes I welcome this prospect, at other moments, I agree with the tech director I met who argues that too many classroom activities would devolve to a lowest common denominator of students using word processing. This is the proverbial "expensive pencil". I need to find a school which has tried this and find out how it went.
I have also been working in more reactive ways, helping teachers who seek me out; loaning teachers cameras, microphones etc; teaching MS students a course in "ICT in action". That's the stuff of my job description.
But most of the work so far has been talking and asking questions. Now that I've been here for a month dealing with individuals, it's time to put on a more public face. At the start of next week, I'll issue a newsletter, about the world of ICTF at the school. Amongst other things I'll be inviting teachers to a course on teaching using wikis - the newsletter will also be a wikipage, that being my single favourite teaching technology.
At the end of this month, there are a couple of questions which have struck me as the key to plotting the way forward. They are:
- What are the reasons that make teachers adopt technology in their classrooms (or not)?
- Why is it so difficult to really infiltrate technology into a school? A lot of cash and energy are spent and relatively little is achieved.
