Pupils prefer overhead projector 1

At the grassroots: pupils prefer the overhead projector

In the Balkans: Macedonia is pursuing a policy to become the regional IT hub, betting heavily on the benefits computer-based education. Meet Veronica and Maria, both 15 years old, as in I did in the Summer of 2009: they were happy to have received a computer from the government, like all students did last year (in a kind of 'One Laptop Per Child' approach) and they had ‘NET’ and MSN - all good fun! “But in the classroom the system is very bad. Most teachers were unable to use it and the computers did not help learning at all."

To my surprise they continued explaining that what really works is the overhead projector. Their biology teacher started using it last year and said it would be ideal for ALL teachers and students. I filmed their experiences at grass roots level and promised to show them to the Minister.
Veronica's and Maria's opinions were shared by all the students I investigated in three schools I visited in Macedonia.

Overhead projector vs PowerPoint

The reliable overhead projector was in use in business before in schools. From Zachman International Enterprise Architecture:

Why I still use an overhead projector: because PowerPoint makes you look stupid
Wednesday, 10 March 2010, By ©2009 John A. Zachman, Zachman International

.... In all actuality, I really do like the visual stimulation of PowerPoint, it's just that I find it very confining as a teacher. I like to be able to hold several foils between my fingers and arbitrarily show any one of them, which PowerPoint limits. I like to be able to cover up different areas of The Framework up with my hands to illustrate various points. Also, I fill out most of my foils with complete sentences- not bullets. I want people to be able to go back and read my complete thought, not piece together the idea from memory. I work with the projector - it's my friend.

read the full story here

Connection and distraction

An interesting discussion going on at American universities since Professor David Cole banned laptops for taking notes because students were distracted by many other things.

From:



Wide Web of diversions gets laptops evicted from lecture halls
Tuesday, March 9, 2010, By Daniel de Vise, Washington Post Staff Writer

A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen. But during the past decade, it has evolved into a powerful distraction. Wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports scores, even online gaming -- all the diversions of a home computer beamed into the classroom to compete with the professor for the student's attention.

Cole surveyed one of his Georgetown classes anonymously after six weeks of laptop-free lectures. Four-fifths said they were more engaged in class discussion. Ninety-five percent admitted that they had used their laptops for "purposes other than taking notes."

"The breaking point for me was when I asked a student to comment on an issue, and he said, 'Wait a minute, I want to open my computer,' " said David Goldfrank, a Georgetown history professor. "And I told him, 'I don't want to know what's in your computer. I want to know what's in your head.' "

read the full story here

The future of Becta

Becta, the British institution for promoting and integrating IT in education, points out that budgets are likely to become tight, especially for IT in most schools. John Spencer evaluates the achievements of Becta. Please note that the phrase "ICT" is commonly used where-as only IT, computer driven appliences, are targeted in efforts to replace the traditional ICTs.

From:



Becta and school ICT: end of the line for the gravy train?
March 05, 2010, Posted by: John Spencer

… But here is the rub… there is an election coming and our lost tribes are getting more than a little nervous as they survey the national debt, public sector cuts and party manifestos.

The Conservative party, who may well win the election have already pledged to shut Becta so maybe this is a good time to reflect on the doings of our old friends.

Long before the 2008 crash, trouble was brewing. Those naughty appointed vendors may have taken a few liberties with their market dominance and educationally discounted software.Schools were now virtually all locked into Microsoft's Operating Systems and Office upgrade cycle...things were getting expensive.

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Edu-tainment or progress in learning?

"Personal and real" How far should we bring down the role of the teacher and our own human senses? Can we be cynical and smirk after reading news like this?
From Singapore:





20 per cent of school curriculum to use IT by 2015
Fri, Mar 05, 2010 my paper BY PAMELA CHOW

STUDENTS of Yusof Ishak Secondary School are learning how to cook simple dishes during their home-economics lessons in virtual reality, thanks to a cooking game on the popular video- game console Nintendo Wii.
Madam Tay Pei Yun, a home-economics teacher at the school, said: "Students are more engaged and they look forward to the lessons... They've developed interest in the subject."

At Tao Nan School, pupils go on excursions to the zoo or the Botanic Gardens during science lessons, armed with Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled personal digital assistants that give them tasks related to nearby plants or animals.

For them, "the experience becomes personal and real", said Mr Kwek Teng Hui, the level head for science at the primary school.

read the full story here

Just a fun news item to start of the weekend.
From SmartPlanet:

A great breakthrough written on a blackboard
Mar 2, 2010, By Dana Blankenhorn

We have grown used to science being done using computers.
Especially computer science.
The idea that a computer science breakthrough might take place on a blackboard boggles the mind.

Read the story here

Spending, benefits and reality hitting home

Well, it seems that IT in education will be high on the political agenda in the UK. After blowing budgets on all kinds of splendour of promising new technologies in the classroom, questions are being asked about what we actually invested in. Do you know? From BBC News Blog dot.Rory:

Are we building schools for the future?
Wednesday, 3 March 2010, Rory Cellan-Jones

In the last decade there's been a technology revolution in schools. Billions have been spent on computers for teachers and pupils, on installing wireless networks, on putting electronic whiteboards in just about every classroom - and on the IT suppliers who run school systems. But now there's mounting disquiet about this huge investment programme - and questions are being asked not just by politicians but by teachers about whether it's delivering what children need.

"But when you throw in projectors, electronic whiteboards, a wireless network and a swipecard electronic registration system it all adds up to a lot of money - £1.5m for the initial fitting-out, and then big running costs every year."

"A common theme was of over-ambitious new building schemes that were so inflexible that the technology was out of date or not fit for purpose by the time schools opened. I heard of huge frustrations about contracts with IT suppliers which head teachers felt did not deliver what their schools needed."

"Nobody I spoke to wanted to go back to chalk and talk, dump the computers, and leave children to make their own way in the digital age. But there was a growing recognition that spending big sums on kit did not necessarily deliver better education.

The symbol of the school IT spending spree is the electronic whiteboard. But I met plenty of teachers who were not convinced that an interactive board costing several thousand pounds was essential, especially in an education system where a teacher standing at the front lecturing silent rows of rapt children is now seen as old hat."

Read and listen here

related to this previous post

Summit on IT in eduction

In June 2009 an international summit on ICT (read IT) in education, EDUsummIT, was held in The Hague, Netherlands.

The summit gathered professionals, policy makers and researchers in the field of information technology and education to jointly discuss the implications of research findings for practice, policy and further research.

It's really worth browsing around the summit's website, watching interviews and contemplating the calls for actions. It's a delight to find views on ICT in education that are realistic - especially about its complexity. Even ways of researching the impact of ICT in education are intricate.

We enjoyed listening in to
Prof. Margaret Cox, King's College London – United Kingdom
Questions:
- What do we know from research, and what research do you think is still needed for ICT in education?
- How do you propose this research should look like? Should these be case-studies, should these be experimental designs?

As always, we remain anxious to learn about the actual pedagogic and didactic strategies and benefits of ICT in education.

Visit the website for extensive information

Hype cycle

It's not news but is very interesting. From the Times Higher Edcation Supplement:





Second Life out as techies embrace cloud email
20 August 2009, By Zoë Corbyn

Virtual worlds are about to plunge into a "trough of disillusionment", lecture podcasts are fast becoming obsolete, but cloud computing will soon be on the "slope of enlightenment".
These are the findings of an analysis of the "hype cycle" of technology in education, published by Gartner, an IT advisory firm.
The annual study looks at the popularity of emerging technologies, from internet TV and e-books to microblogging sites such as Twitter, across a range of sectors. It tracks their progression as a function of expectations.
The cycle ranges from over-enthusiasm as technology is hyped, through a period of disillusionment when it fails to deliver, via a slope of enlightenment to a "plateau of productivity", as users learn how best to employ it.
The results for the education sector provide some interesting insights.



















And an even interesting input can be found in he comments on the actual report. Some quotes:

"What is both unbelievable and incredible frustrating, is higher education's lack of focus and research towards developing suitable means for digital learning. One could expect these institutions to have enough integrity and knowledge not to just jump on any wave of hype: LMS, Blogs, Wikis, Podcast etc, and after a while find themselves surrounded by more or less useless digital means for teaching and learning. Why are these institutions not developing proper applications for specific learning goals? Why do they, again and again, think that what we have, or can find on the web, is what should be used? Development and design of applications for learning and teaching is an art in it self, and the matter needs to be addressed as such. …"
WebDeveloper

"I find this article and the comments on it quite remarkable. Not one of the contributors considers whether educational technology is based on anything we know about learning; and not one considers what kind of learning might ensue. There is a underlying suggestion that knowledge is the same as understanding; and not even a hint of the simple fact that the makers of IT are in it for the same reason as the makers of corflakes. …"

"…But then, it is unfortunately common to this day to think that learning and teaching are almost self-evident activities, and it is rare to come across accounts of the use of technology in an educational setting, written by people who are conversant with the literature on learning, and who have a reasonably viable theory of it. What therefore prompts the introduction of technology into educational settings is, usually, not how it might dovetail with what has been established about the nature of learning, but a general belief that, as technology can be used for washing laundry and mixing cement, and in that way ease our lives, so technology can also be used to ease learning. A very great deal of money is used in this illusionary way, but then, this is only one among the many illusions we all live by."
Eric Sotto

"The last two posters get to the heart of the problem. The best lectures and practicals are ones that capture the students imagination and encourage them to take part and "do" things. Information delivery is important but subsidiary. I kid you not but I have seen a good educator captivate a group of sixty students using nothing but a whiteboard. I have also seen good and novel use of IT but IT is just a tool."
academic

"I think that the use of virtual worlds have yet to be integrated into a pedagogy and design that is integrated in a mixed reality form of education. I think that alone they are only a piece. One of the critical pieces for virtual worlds adoption is intuitive input devices which will enable an ease of use. I think disillusionment is with the current generation, cost, options, and maturity of technology. What has not kept up with the technology is instructional models and designs that do not set the use of technology apart but integrates it into instructional spaces where it is appropriate. :"
Paulette Robinson

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