Day 1 Q&A – Reflecting on ‘Thinking the Unthinkable’

We put a lot of our education resources into our buildings. What if we look far beyond that – beyond ’school premises’, to a science fiction world where a child sits in a ‘personal learning cubicle’. Is that where we are headed? Is that where we would want to go?

Sir Geoff Hampton sees a ‘blended’ future. Learning is and will continue to be a social process and we are social things – we only need to look at our cities and villages to see the evidence of that. He also highlighted the risk in relinquishing the link between a teacher and a learner through technology.

Tom Greaves offered that when computers first appeared in schools there was a great worry that it would break down and reduce the level and quality of teacher-pupil interaction – but the research actually indicates the opposite. It is clear that the presence of certain types technologies actually creates much higher levels of discussion and debate.

Sir Geoff finished the day with a serious observation. Too many teachers still focus on WHAT they are going to teach. Instead of knowing WHY they are teaching it and trying to understand HOW their teaching will work! 

Day 1 Q&A – 21st Century Teacher Training

The end of the first day saw a great question and answer session around teacher training. Particulary around the fact that many classteachers have access to levels of technology and supporting professional development that are perhaps unavailable to trainee teachers. 

A early question was raised about Colleges of Education. Are they old fashioned in their outlook? How do we bring them into the 21st Century?

Sir Geoff Hampton asked us to consider what skills we should be providing trainee teachers with in the modern age. He said trainees need to be trained for teaching in tomorrow’s world. He also advised on some approaches that are showing signs of successfully working, including how a much closer, on-going cooperation between trainee teachers and working practitioners could encourage development of more up to date skills. If the trainee and the teacher are dealing with the same issues together, then there can be effective cross-fertilizing of ideas. (a form of teaching apprenticeship perhaps?)

A higher education institution in the US commented that they had put Activboards in 17 classrooms at the College of Education. Now two thirds of their faculty are adopting the technology. A key factor in their success has been in the integration of Promethean professional development programmes into the staff and student training.

Stephen Jury from Promethean noted that Promethean are keen to partner with more Schools of Education in order to explore the industry/academic partnerships needed to address this skills gap and Tom Greaves suggested making a level of basic IWB competency an employment requirement.

A US district replied, describing their programme, “The best in everyone” – a compulsary 9 hour course in effective Interactive Whiteboard use that all teachers must take.

A quick interview with Tom Greaves on the impact of Interactive technology

We caught up with Tom over lunch. He was quick to comment on the Promethean multi-input Activboard. He had the following to say:

“The multi pen board from Promethean is an amazing beauty we have yet to fully appreciate and understand.

To me, the London study into Interactive Whiteboards highlighted how teachers, who had not got the benefit of strong professional development support, could misuse the immense potential of an Interactive Whiteboard. Examples of this included bringing single students up to work through questions and slowing down the flow of the lesson.

I think this Promethean development will literally change everything. Collaborative, shared use of the board cannot be avoided. Students walking into a Promethean Activclassroom will instantly know they can expect more than an instructivist experience.”

On the wider, long term impact of the Activboard and Activclassroom in classrooms, Tom had the following to say:

We are just starting the journey to understand how Activboards will change everything. We are perhaps only 5 years into a 30 year cycle. The whole idea of a large, group centric, interactive display system will become ubiquitous. The connection to the curriculum will migrate to it, content will migrate, assessment will migrate.

In a short time we can expect that there will be little curriculum that is not tied to the interactive whiteboard presentation. Currently teachers have to look at their state standards, look at the curriculum, look at the paper based tests and then look at the Activboard and Activote and try to make sense of it all.”

Promethean has set out to help teachers make the best of the opportunity presented by interactive technology through the creation of Promethean Planet and the Promethean Learning portals. What is Tom’s view on these?

“The huge success of Promethean Planet is because the intrinsic value of the activboard is fully understood by educators.

The teachers recognise the potential of the solution to change the outputs of their their teaching to such a degree that they are prepared to help drive the community to evolve itself to maximise it.

This is unprecedented with any other learning technology that schools are embracing.

Teachers are doing this because they feel the Activboard has the promise of doing ‘extraordinary things’ in the classroom – and in light of that – teachers are prepared to do extraordinary things to celebrate and share this…. they know their contribution will help another educator do something extraordinary.”

I asked Tom what other research could help those considering an Interactive technology purchase understand the benefits.

“One thing that has struck me in reading the research reports is that there is at least 30 different kinds of uses of Interactive Whiteboards – while many of them are highly productive academically, some are only mildly productive and some potentially damaging. What I think is missing – as far as I can tell – is that no one has made a ranked list of board uses based on expected student outcomes. For Example – one use of the board is that the teacher can create a graphic representation of something at the board in moments. Compared with using a chalkboard – each time this skill is applied – time is saved. Time is a measurable and valuable commodity in a busy classroom. If you are just using the board to help slower student work our problems – then the board has little if any advantage over a chalkboard.”

An empirical study into the 20 or 30 most common teacher activities and how the use of the Activclassroom changes them will generate data that makes clear where and how teacher productivity is actually being maximised. It is also important that rubrics are in place that measure not only time but quality, richness and depth.

We also need to capture and understand what makes for ‘the Ah ha!” moments.”

Perhaps our readers have something that needs to be on the list of existing and new teacher techniques that can be facilitated using Interactive Technology.  Please comment!

Classroom of the Future: What will it look like?

Mike Gibbons of the Innovation Unit reflected on the fact that 50 years ago this month, saw Sputnik and the ‘launch of the space age’. Before that the world felt like a fixed place – fixed in its ways and thinking about change – but now our technological progress is running at an exponential rate. For example, in the last 10 years more books were published than in the past 5000!

He says we cannot think about a modern education system without considering how this rate of change will fundamentally impact the learning spaces we currently call schools.

Mike says ‘even thinking about how the the school of the future may look is a limiting idea’. Whatever the solution is – it has to be something that can evolve and adapt.

He says we should not just refine what we have today but actually enable ourselves to build ’something revolutionary’. That also means fully embracing technology in the learning process – not just building shiny versions of Victorian schools. Modern Education Technology does not de-personalise. Interactive technology, the Internet and other modern tools and devices have evolved learning technology to a point where it fundamentally encourages personal attention and no longer simply supports knowledge transfer.

To cope with that technological opportunity, Professional development must also reform with the current focus on ‘best practice’ becoming refocused on developing and exploring ‘next practice’.

Mike featured a few schools facing the challenge of re-inventing the education system and how they went about it

• Willow Tree Primary – the first school with an Interactive Whiteboard in every classroom.
• St Pancras – facing global warming issues though an environmentally friendly, geo-thermal heating system.
• Knowsley – original schools in the area have been closed and 8 new ones opened with radically designed spaces.
• Chesil Partnership – are developing their own curriculum
• Darlington Education Village – a federation across all phases of education.
• Shireland – opening their schools portal system up to families, the local community and the world.
• Bridgemary – 7am 11pm availability with learners and tutors negotiating individual timetables.
• Bridge Academy – redesigned the timetable to allow 1 day a week for home learning.

“What about the Curriculum?” – Mick Waters QCA

In his role at QCA, Mick is facing the challenge to ‘develop a modern, world-class curriculum that will inspire, challenge all learners and prepare them for the future.’ It means facing fundamental questions, including:

• How do we make a curriculum special for learners?
• How do we create a curriculum that is something that unfolds and evolves with the times?

He claims that problems in the past have been in documenting and listing the curriculum forcing regimentation and inflexibility on the education system and that things need to move on. A new curriculum must reflect the changing world and the nature of a modern, technologically rich society.

To do this means addressing key issues coming from learners:

• Why do I get taught at the speed of other pupils?
• Why do I take exams in the Summer?
• Why must I fail an exam this year when I could pass them next ?
• Why do I have to remember things when I can find out on a mobile phone?
• Why are there so few subjects when I have hundreds of TV channels?
• Why do I have to write in school when everyone types in life?

He went on to describe a vision of ‘Lifelong learning’. Learning that means more than just developing subject knowledge – Learning means developing enterprise and initiative, individual maturity and a sense of self and belonging. Schools also must adapt. In schools everyone will be learning, teachers and pupils – even parents.
The curriculum will be purposeful and authentic. Technology will be pervasive. Assessment will become ‘on demand’ seeking ‘achievement routes’ that matter to individual learners. Lessons will also persist – captured online or on a personal device – so a learner can relive the experiences.

A final presentation provided a big picture of the UK curriculum – what it is trying achieve and how it might be organised? Mick presented a picture of Successful learners, Confident Individuals, Responsible Citizens where their Skills, Knowledge and Attitudes are all equally important.

• Does this make sense to educators around the world?
• Is addressing this why we came here to the Symposium?
• What questions does it raise for you?