An educational revolution? Really?

You say you’ve got a real solution

Well, you know

We’d all love to see the plan (Lennon and McCartney, Revolution)

Once upon a time, in the 1970s, a huge political upheaval changed the educational landscape in the UK. The state system had been academically selective, funneling children into different schools on the basis of one examination taken at the age of 11. I never took the 11-plus exam; the system was abolished and all of the children in the area where I lived were sent to the same school. One year earlier, it had been a selective school for girls with teachers who had grown up in that system and had never expected the rug to be pulled from under their feet. Suddenly, the tide of academic girls was replaced by a tsunami of undifferentiated boys and girls. Leaving aside the question of whether or not the decision was just and educational, the teachers had not been prepared for this seismic change. I remember many who rose to the uninvited challenge and I have been influenced by their inspiring teaching to this day. But some teachers stubbornly declined to adapt to the new situation, floundered, and took early retirement as soon as the opportunity arose. I have great sympathy for those women who could not get their heads around the ‘new normal’. They were probably highly skilled in the task they had been doing and it was unfair to assume that, without any preparation, they would thrive in the new environment.

We are experiencing a similar moment, but this time it is not implacable government which is declaring a new paradigm, it is technological change in society. While it is clear to industry, services and business that they need to embrace new technologies, the argument for using computers in education is more nuanced. There is no consensus about the purpose of education, and your attitude to the use of computers in the classroom depends on your answer to the question: “What are schools for?”.

127 ideas enough for you?

“A revolution is taking place... we are living on the future edge” (Global Digital Citizen Foundation video). Really? The majority of teachers are not revolutionaries and such talk scares or annoys them. When many teachers hear these enormous claims in dramatic language, it puts them off.

Our children are Digital Natives living Globally Connected Lives. Their schools are Learning Organisations in which teachers Flip the Classroom; teach 21st Century Skills; and the students Own the Learning. Technology is Redefining learning tasks. The picture is appealing but these models do not always live up to close scrutiny. My students could be regarded as digital natives, but many have a small vocabulary and the strong immigrant accent of their teachers does not impair their ability to communicate. When models and metaphors are used as if they were facts rather than opinions, it puts teachers off.

My teaching life has changed greatly in the last decade. I have developed resources using wikispaces, Google Drive, OneNote, Evernote, Edmodo, Twitter and many more. Maybe I could write a blogpost introducing “Six Tools Every 21st Teacher Should Use”. Or do you think there are enough of those already? Articles which are lists, repeatedly retweeted, contribute to an avalanche of apps which puts teachers off.

Why are many teachers put off? Simply, they are not revolutionaries and do not like to be told that the world around them is changing unrecognisably. It’s not what they see and it’s not what they want. Furthermore, when they are told that they must teach differently to stay relevant, they feel devalued. They know they are good teachers already.

Undeniably, new technology has unveiled an era of amazing potential, but it has not decreed that everything must be different. More realistically, it offers the opportunity for good teachers to adapt and evolve by adding new approaches to their repertoire. Most teachers who are reluctant to learn skills are not refusing. They have been put off by excitable and impractical language and the uncritical attitudes of technology advocates.

They are already expert teachers who understand how children learn and we need them on our side.