The Crazy Winding Road of Information Communication Technology in Education

If you came to a conference or postgraduate university course with educators in the room in 2015, what would you expect to see? Everyone with ipads? Laptops? Assembling online notes with Evernote? Tweeting about what’s happening?

Yes, you will see these things. But not for most in the room. What will you see? Paper and pens. And these are people who have the interest enough to spend their school holiday time or weekends going to a conference. Still with the paper and pen. Of those, some will look at those tweeting with the long cold stare of the passive aggressive. “How could you be so rude as to be tweeting this?” comes the unasked, but implied question. Later, these same teachers say “I don’t have time to tweet”, looking at you as if you must be some kind of non hard working teacher / parent who clearly has far too much time on their hands. “Do you watch TV or read?” comes back the question. “Yes”. Kindly me says “There you go, we use our time different”. Inside, I want to say “How do you find the time to do THAT?”

So then you go back to your school, your environment. The cosy, safe environment. And there you see the engagement with technology in education. Teachers who will say “the students use Word in my class”. “Our textbooks are online textbooks!”. “My lessons go on Edmodo”. But that’s often it. For the most part, they still like to be the Sage on the Stage, imparting wisdom and having the students all working at the same pace. In the meantime, those who run schools and school systems have used a variety of ways to build a link between teachers and the world of technology outside the school walls. This is about those ways.

Pre DER

The Computer Invader

I’m old enough to remember when computers were desktops and were just in labs and a couple were in staffrooms. Reports were handwritten, teachers used paper chronicles to write up what they were teaching. The computers were usually Macs or Windows, depending on schools and systems. The computers were visitors, and were used to put onto a sheet of paper what used to be handwritten. And then something to put marks / results into (but one had to always print out a hard copy).

Where the computer started to invade classrooms more (and yes, I use invade deliberately) was when laptops became smaller and cheaper and some schools would buy their staff laptops, others forcing their staff to purchase a particular type of laptop. The types of these laptops were almost always centrally dictated by a system, or more likely in these early days, be up to the IT manager of a school. So teachers and students could go from school to school and have either Windows or Macs, using different software, different approaches — with almost no collaboration between schools about how to use these things. The students, of course, could still only use computers in labs.

The Computer Lab

These labs, replete with 15–20 desktops, were in schools when I was at school in the 80s. Computer nerds were the only ones allowed to use them in those early days. As time went along, computer science and engineering classes were timetables into the two — three computer labs in a school. Other subjects had to either book classes into the times those other subjects weren’t on, or hope that a teacher of an engineering class was teaching theory or on an excursion. It was crazy times. Art, visual design and music classes were also provided with desktops in order to use the dazzling new programs like the Adobe Creative Suite and Sibelius.

The Laptop Trolley

The next phase of development came with the independent sector starting to experiment with various ideas of using technology, which was based largely on centrally purchased Laptop Trolleys. These had to be booked, which meant that your lessons needed to be organised in such a way that meant that certain lessons were “technology lessons” and then the other lessons were pen and paper, chalk and talk. These laptop trolleys still exist, especially in Primary Schools. Go to a conference and there they are — gleaming trolleys loaded with powerpoints, ready to be rolled around corridors. These days, they also have ipad models.

The SmartBoard Revolution

The next whizbang fad in the early 2000s in independent schools was the SmartBoard (and other brands, like Promethean). This was to be, like other fads, the thing to revolutionalise education. You could plug your computer into the SmartBoard and be able to put up images, text, whatever and draw around them with SpecialPens. Students could do this too. Or you could even save work written on the board and email them to students. Essentially, just preserving the Sage on the Stage — except now she or he has a pen, a darkened room and the internet. These boards were installed in schools across the nation, luring prospecting parents in, impressed by what they saw on Open Days. These things are still sold at conferences — primary schools are more their prime market now.

The 1 to 1 Computer Ratio

One of the bigger shifts in independent schools was the introduction of 1:1 laptops into schools. These were either purchased by the school (rare) or by parents forced to buy a particular platform (more often Mac than Windows). There was a lot of excitement accompanying this shift — the idea of kids being connected to the net and being able to connect with students and ideas from around the world. So, we as tech savvy teachers heard a lot about “oooh, we just talked to an astronaut from NASA” and such like — plus other stories of one off lessons that involved deep engagement with technology. What we didn’t hear was that during most lessons, students were using Word and Textbooks installed on the computers.

We also didn’t hear publicly about the students finding every possibility to play games, message each other and watch videos. But that happened.

The DER

Where the biggest shift happened in terms of computers and education happened was when the Rudd Government decided to stimulate the economy by funding laptops to every high school in Australia. It revealed exactly where the shifts and inequities were happening in the system. As a result, there were a variety of platforms and computers being bought with public money. Some Independent schools mostly went with the 1:1 Mac or Windows option, others went with buying a whole host of them and putting them on trolleys (I remember going for a job at such a school and was mildly horrified that they didn’t seem to trust the students enough with the 1:1s, so they went with trolleys).

What was interesting was the way in which schools made decisions about the choice of platform. The school at which I was working made the decision to go with HP Windows machines — the IT Co-ordinator didn’t like Macs, but still did a “consultation process”, which included surveying the staff (we mostly voted for Macs) and asking students to work with Macs and Windows. Most students at that time had Windows machines at home, so, unsurprisingly, they went with Windows.

The “choice” of the students were terrible — many of them bricks within 6 months. And bricks that had bits flaking off them after 3 months. It didn’t take long to realise that it was difficult to run a program that needed all computers on deck when a number of the instruments were being sent off for repair, or were running out of battery by lunchtime.

Then again, in comparison to NSW Public Schools, we had it easy. We heard various stories about the $500 Lenovo DER laptops that were obtained due to canny dealing from the department, led at the time by Michael Coutts-Trotter. Many of them too were resembling building material after a while and weren’t the great bringer of tech equity that people were hoping for.

The larger problems of the DER were outside hardware, however. Schools needed to pay for their own infrastructure in order to support this delivery from Canberra. There were new servers that needed to be built in order to cope with increase traffic, bigger internet capacity, new tech experts to help fix the machines but also help staff better integrate technology into the classroom. Schools also had to pay for site licences for the software used — Adobe were charging more and more, as were Microsoft. After all, teachers and students gotta have Word.

Post — DER Hardware

After the DER money dried up, schools were left with various dilemmas in regards the 1:1 computer issue. There were programs and teaching stratgies developed with devices in mind, but now schools weren’t getting the new devices. In the larger independent schools, this wasn’t an issue- parents could afford the latest gear through leasing them from the school. In the smaller community independents and systemic Catholic schools, the issue was different, with many parents just able to pay the school fees but many being unable to afford a leasing fee on top of them. In public schools, this was even more of an issue. It’s one that has inspired a number of responses.

BYOD

One of the more popular solutions is the BYOD — Bring Your Own Device model, which means students can bring in any device that they may have already, such as a phone, ipad, laptop, whatever. That has meant that schools have to scramble with the tech setup of their system and staff have to be flexible with expectations, lesson plans and resources accessible on the cloud, especially if there’s both laptops and tablets in a room. This is sustainable, however, in public schools, because of its affordability. It’s also a model favoured by gifted education experts, because of the flexibility afforded to gifted students.

BYODD

This refers to Bring Your Own Designated Device. By insisting on a designated platform as well as having the parents buy that platform is preferred by many schools. This solution is favoured by many teachers, because it means that all can design lessons and programs around the same platform. School systems also like it because it means that the parents and students are responsible for getting the device fixed if something goes wrong, rather than trying to have it done through the school. The issue here, however, is cost for many smaller independent schools — which is why some schools have ipads or Chromebooks as their Designated Device.

The Creation of the ICT Co-ordinator and Equity

In independent schools, it was becoming clear that there was a need for increasing teams of technical support people in order to cope with the systems that were being built. These days you can still tell the wealth of a school by the size of the IT department and the number of non teaching tech staff. Some I know of have 15–20 people. Most, smaller independent schools have 1. Or, in the case of many state schools, none. Another key gap between systems is the employment of ICT Co-ordinators.

Information Communication Technology is one of the more recent buzz phrases in education — and the ICT Co-ordinator is the main person who is supposed to be helping staff with technology issues and integration. For the most part, however, they are either helping staff with basic issues, students with proxy related issues and doing the paperwork related to the fixing of broken computers. And then talking to parents on the phone about broken leased computers and the parents having to pay the cost of the repair.

ICT Co-ordinators in independent schools often have time and money provided to them in order to help them with their work. In some of the wealthier ones, there’s full time ICT Integrators who don’t have classes, but can work on projects throughout the day with staff and students. In public schools, however, there is usually some kind of ICT related position, but it’s usually just a tiny amount of time provided and it’s not a position of much power or influence. It is in this area where we can see a great inequity between public and independent schools already starting to grow, as independent schools start to have staff trained in this area but that seems to be swiftly withering on the vine in public schools.

The Continuing Platform Wars

The story of the crazy road of technology in classrooms could not end without discussing the changing nature of What Platform is to be used in a classroom. There was the Mac v Windows debate in the 00s, with maths, science and engineering subjects preferring Windows and the humanities, art, music and design courses preferring Macs. Macs won out in a lot of independent schools, Windows in public schools. That ground has shifted now to the battle between laptops, tablets and Chromebooks.

Laptop V Tablet

There was, three — five years ago, a great deal of excitement over ipads. “Kids love them”, it was said. “Interactive”, and so on. As a result, primary schools had them bought and placed in trolleys and some high schools had them issued / leased as 1:1 devices. Three years on, however, and primary schools still like them but some high schools struggle as there’s a significant number of subjects for which they don’t have good use; and there’s a perception from some parents that ipads are “serious” and are “primary school tools”. Plus, there’s the “game machines, not work machines” argument. Any teacher who has to constantly watch their students in case they are playing games on their pads can confirm that. There was also in many cases little inservicing time provided for staff as well as a lack of time to produce apps and resources for use in the classroom. For TAS and music, there wasn’t the power of Adobe image manipulation software and Sibelius composition software. The lack of a typewriter (“where’s Word on the ipad???”) and difficulty of printing was considered a discentive as well for humanities subjects. It is at such times that in many ipad schools, the suggested solution is “pen and paper”.

It is for these reasons, though, that the laptop is still the favoured tool for high schools, its allrounder status making it attractive. But then issues of cost are brought back into the equation for many schools. Hence the Chromebook.

The Chromebook

The creation of the Google OS and its inexpensive devices holds some romance for educators seeking to eliminate equity issues. It’s also coincided with the increase of interest in the Google Suite and Google Classroom as a way for staff to use something as a collaborative group. Catholic systemic educators have been particularly keen during conferences and inservices to talk about the power of Google for collaboration and the like. The other big attraction to schools is the access to free or low cost software, as opposed to Adobe and Microsoft. Though, the flipside of that is that specialist subjects still require high end software. It is that need which is sparking conversations about specialist computer labs. Again.

The biggest issue in all this and the most difficult road to travel is that of staff development and attitudes, as well as student engagement and meaningful use of technology. There’s still resistance to get away from the whiteboard and notes, pen and paper. Still the view that the computer is the unwelcome invader. Still the textbooks hold sway with many, despite what has gone on with software and hardware. But that’s for a future time and a future piece.