The latest from dougbelshaw.com/blog
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- Weeknote #11
- One week until #GTAUK
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- Motivation comes from within.
- Intention vs. Effect
- You are what you habitually do.
- Is it time to get rid of secondary schools?
- Productivity: value your time
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On having a ‘teaching toolkit’
4 CommentsI was interested to read a recent thread on Slashdot, the geekiest of geeky websites, about using technology effectively in the classroom. The conversation and debate varies in quality, but one by an anonymous commenter brought it all back to ground level for me:
“I think a major mistake teachers make is to discover new teaching technology and then invent a curriculum that uses them. This gets the process entirely backwards. If you try this, you’re going to sacrifice learning in the interest of playing with your new toys.
You’ve got these new tools. That’s great. Now forget about them. Design your lessons as you would. As you go, you’re going to realize… “this would work better if I can use my new gizmo.” This is where the technology comes in. First find the problem, then find the solution.”
I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past – of putting the cart before the horse.
This made me think back a bit further and, using Google Reader’s new search feature I found the posts I was looking for. The first was Education, Networks and Informatics by Clarence Fisher in which he summarised what the edublogosphere has been talking about for the last few years:
Two years ago we talked about tools. We heard educational bloggers say: wikis, blogs, podcasts, and flickr. With these things we will change the world.
Last year we talked about pedagogy. We wanted to re-learn how to teach. We talked about empowerment, about lesson design, and about international projects. We learned how to change our own worlds.
This year, we need to talk about networks.
So, coming back to my being guilty of putting the ‘cart before the horse’, was I so guilty? We do need to be aware of these tools – as Stephen Downes has mentioned – our personal and professional development matters just much as that of our students. We are, after all, fellow learners.
This brings up the idea of having a ‘teaching toolkit’, an idea Brian Crosby mooted in a post with an extravagantly long title: Have You Used Every Tool In Your Toolbox? Did You Throw Away Those You Haven’t Used Yet? In it, he likens learning how to use software, and especially Web 2.0 applications, just in case you need them. To mix metaphors, it’s a bit like researching carts, getting your horse sorted out and then strapping on a cart appropriate to the horse… ;)
So those that doubt the usefulness of playing with and learning these applications (Twittering our lives away) I say bunk. Its only a waste of time if it becomes too much of a distraction and negatively impacts your work. As professionals we are supposed to be able to moderate ourselves and make just those kinds of decisions.
Learning is messy.
What a great way to put it! We don’t know what’s round the corner; we don’t know what tools could be immensely useful to students in the future. Or if we do, our curricula are too static and our lessons too boring.
I’ve listed many of the tools in my teaching toolkit here. What’s in yours? :)
Published on September 6, 2007 · Filed under: Uncategorized;
4 Responses to “On having a ‘teaching toolkit’”
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audrey said on September 7th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Absolutely… curriculum should drive tech use rather than tech use driving the curriculum. It’s not that different from thematic teaching or interdisciplinary teaching. When the connection is tortured or belabored, the whole point of those good approaches is lost. Similarly, technology in the curriculum needs to be thoughtful and appropriate to the objective. And, it’s also true that teachers need to have an opportunity to play with tools and discover how they might best be used. I think that this is probably one of the best uses for the early adopters of a tool. They learn it because they really want to, they find ways to use it in the curriculum and then they teach what they know to others, shortcutting the time it takes to get up to speed for those who would rather not do it then have to deal with a steep learning curve.
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…it’s also true that teachers need to have an opportunity to play with tools and discover how they might best be used. I think that this is probably one of the best uses for the early adopters of a tool.
The problem is that professional development time isn’t set aside just for teachers to ‘tinker’ or explore new tools which could be used pedagogically. Ergo, it’s only those with the most free time (i.e. usually young teachers new to the profession) who can do this. But, they’ve got the least pedagogical experience to hang it on. Crazy. :s
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What you describe here is the exact problem that the teaching profession faces in the UK. However, the SLICT (Strategic Leadership in ICT) courses were very tightly focused on delivering practical information about new technologies to Senior Leaders. I think that these courses are coming to an end now though :(
Far, far too many educators do look at amazing tools and then try to come up with uses for them. The most practical example of this are the interactive s, sorry, whiteboards across many schools. These have generally been put in because a school has obtained some funding or has identified a visual benefit to equip the school. I would suggest that up to 80% of such boards across UK schools are simply used as projector screens.
The happy medium of all this has to come from effective CPD (continuing professional development). Here keen new teachers can be given an opportunity to share ideas. At my school they’ve just given all staff the opportunity to be paid to deliver CPD sessions. It is very clearly not aimed at just Heads of Department or suchlike. Anyone can come up with a proposal to share good practice. Hopefully such a concept can start discussions between all staff.
The personal solution to this has also to be to ’stuff’ your virtual toolkit with ideas – making a note of new developments and new technologies – and then focusing on your classroom delivery. Only even make use of ICT – existing or cutting edge concepts – if it adds value. Sometimes the best use of ICT is not even to use it. ;)
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