The Issue of Technology (and why is everything an issue?)

It seems that one of the biggest issues in our school at the moment is the issue of technology. ICTs. Or perhaps I am the only one that sees that it is a problem.

A PD day that the school held recently on the new ELS saw us auditing our current English curriculum at the various levels, and identifying what it is that we are already doing, what the ELS is asking of the curriculum and working out where the gaps are between the two so that these can be addressed. One of the biggest differences I can see between the CSF II and the ELS is that the ELS makes quite explicit the extent to which teaching should be combined with technology. It outlines the skills students should have in ICT, and the different sorts of technologies and applications that should be used in the classroom.

Somewhat intentionally, the KLA manager gave the task of presenting the ELS technology audit to myself and another graduate teacher, knowing my particular interest in the use of ICTs in the classroom. I presented what it was that the ELS was specifying, and how our English curriculum was currently failing to address these points, particularly focussing on how the ELS talks about the internet as another form of text that students should be taught to read analytically. The discussion that ensued was somewhat disappointing to me, but not entirely unexpected.

My favourite comment : “ICT is not great, Shakespeare is great”
Closely followed by: “I don’t know why we have to hold up ICT as a “solution” to every thing, as some sort of wonder technology that is more important than anything else in the in the curriculum.”
To a certain extent that is a valid point. ICT is not the solution to everything and it is not a guarantee that students will be engaged, or that they will learn better or faster or in a more authentic way. Incorporation of ICT into our classrooms and the focus we give it IS problematic. What role should ICT have in our classrooms? To a large extent the ELS has spelt this out for us. So now the question of ‘what if’ has been answered and so the focus needs to shift to ‘how?’


At the risk of sounding like a technobrat I think that what many teachers are failing to see is that ICT is not an imposition, it is a reality. Or it is in my world anyway. The majority of my communication is done over the internet – I have email conversations and MSN messenger chats with my friends. I have two blog sites – one where I can blog about school issues and the other that I use to help me deal with the uncertainty that is my life at the moment. It is through these blogs, that are, although public property, rather anonymous, that my friends get daily or weekly insight into how I am and what I am thinking about. And through their blogs I get the same insight and am able to comment – to offer support or advice as they offer me. The internet is a tool that helps me not only to perform my job at a better standard and more efficiently, but it is a way of life for me. My students email me essays and work which I edit, make comments on and send back. I use my laptop and the digital projector to present many of my classes using PowerPoint, scanned images, photographs, etc. Whether or not people want to admit it, technology is here to stay and it is a reality in the lives of most of our students. Technology is not just a tool, it is communication, information, presentation. So why is it such an issue?

I think that there are several separate issues with technology and its implementation in the classroom that both our school and many others in the same situation will have to deal with when the ELS is implemented, and have been dealing with for some time already.

Up-skilling of Staff will be one of the major hurdles that the school will have to o’erleap in order to enable staff to incorporate ICTs into their classes, and facilitate their students using ICTs effectively and critically. One of the main reasons for the resistence to ICTs that so many of the staff exhibit is due to the lack of working knowledge that they themselves have about technologies and how to use them. Schools need to implement some sort of radical personal development program in order to pass on the skills, and therefore the confidence, in using these ICTs that staff members need.

Access to ICTs are another issue that many, particularly government schools, face. When the teachers who are willing and able to incorporate ICTs, in an effective and challenging way into their classroom, are unable to even book their students into a computer room, some serious problems arise. Many schools have a limited number of computer labs, and when these are fully booked, it is a struggle to incorporate computer based activities into the classroom, regardless of how valuable and engaging they may be.

Another problem is incorporating ICT into the classroom in a “real” way. Computers should not just be used as an alternative way of presenting something that can just as easily be presented in writing or on paper. Instead, ICT should be used to enhance the learning of students, to present to them new challenges or activities that are more authentic in their nature than many of the paper-based activities they are asked to complete each day. ICT should be incorporated in a natural and authentic way into the classroom, not as an artificial and imposed “added extra.” However this is easier said than done. In order for this to be the ‘norm’ rather than the exception as it currently is, more discussion, sharing of ideas and promotion of the possibilities of incorporating ICTs into the classroom is necessary.

So, I guess that perhaps the battle has just begun. The battle to incorporate ICTs into schools. The battle to have ICTs seen as valuable and a way to enrich teaching, and increase efficacy and engagement in our students.

I don’t know what the solution is. At the moment I am seeing the problems and beginning to think about how the ‘issue of ICT’ can stop being an issue and start being accepted and incorporated. With the schools technology centre being built next year, dealing with these issues becomes more of a priority. I am expecting a struggle. I wonder how we will go…