While checking my Feedly feed this morning I came across an awesome TED talk (I'm loving the excuse to watch TED talks). Jon Gosier talks about the impact that technology is having on the world. He mentions that the more e use technology to innovate our lives and make our lives easier, the more we are actually oppressing those who don't have access to the technologies we do. He uses an example from a medical perspective to illustrate this. He mentions that the more we use technology to record our medical information, the more we are restricting our ability to treat people effectively who don't have access to technology. The people who are still using pen and paper to record medical information in the years to come, will be disadvantaged in time and resources compared to those who have their medical records available at the touch of a button.
Does this translate in education? Are we oppressing those in third world countries and restricting their learning because we are so much more advanced? Think of the refugees that are coming to our country, who are having to catch up not only on language and academic skills, but also the technological skills as well.
Jon says that we innovate technology around the world based on the assumption that everyone will have access to the innovation. He also says that we need to think less about efficiency and more about efficacy. We need to think of the global outcomes of our actions. The link to Jon's TED talk is here.
This TED talk lead me to think about what would happen if we moved to a Bring Your Own Tech (BYOT) initiative. It lead me to think about the global impacts of the BYOT movement. If all of Australia, the USA and UK created this initiative, would we have some schools, or areas that are disadvantaged by this movement because they can't afford to buy technologies? I did a little bit of research, and I couldn't find the answer to this specifically, however, an article I found lead me to think about the impact this has on teachers. Cardoza and Junks (2014) investigated teachers concerns regarding this movement. They found that teachers are mostly concerned with their own ability to use technology, the amount of preparation time needed for lessons with a technology focus and also the lack of professional development.
I thought about my experiences regarding technology use in schools. n regards to professional development specifically, I remembered that on my first prac, they didn't have professional development as such, but rather in each staff meeting, a teacher would share a new tool or experience that they found using the technologies they were using.
In saying this, teachers should consider adopting a growth mind set when undergoing and investigating new technologies (follow this link to Laureena's blog that talks about the growth mind set). I specifically like Laureena's mention of the impact that the teacher mindset can have on student mindsets regarding the use of ICTs.
I think my random spurts of research and thinking has opened up more questions than answers for now. Are we disadvantaging some people because our use of technology is advancing? Will the BYOT movement increase this disadvantage? Do we need to do more professional development for all teachers regarding the use of ICTs? Or is an 'in house' sharing method just as efficient? How important is the growth mindset for teaching and learning about ICTs?
Cardoza, Y. & Tunks, J. (2014). The bring your own technology initiative: An examination of teachers' adoption. Computers in the Schools, 31(4), 293-315. doi:10.1080/07380569.2014.967626
A good read Mae! I too enjoy TED talk's. It made me think of my father who is a GP in country Qld, he has own family practice there. My Dad is in his mid sixties and has never used a computer! His receptionist uses a computer for keeping appointment times and writing various referrals when she needs to. My Dad doesn't have a computer in his consulting room and uses the good old filing system to operate his surgery. He goes to regular doctor seminars and workshops that keep him up to date with the new drugs on the market and other important information he requires to continue being a good doctor. But will he ever "Google" anything?? Never! :-)
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of sharing new ICT ideas amongst teacher colleagues at staff meetings is a good one! A non-threatening, positive and inspiring way to share new technology, whilst keeping teaching lessons new and fresh.