We are in the middle of an on-line debate about the future of technologies for learning in our schools. This has already included some significant announcements regarding a change of direction to Glow and we will be continuing to develop our thinking building up to the Scottish Government ICT Summit on the 17th October. To help inform our work I have set five objectives, the second of which is unpacked below.

Objective 2: Improve confidence in the use of ICT for learners, teachers, school leaders and parents

“I don’t do ICT” – “I’m not very good with technology” – “It didn’t work the last time I tried”

The above terms are not uncommon. The question is: are they appropriate terms when we are trying to education children in 2011? Someone recently asked me if in Scotland we were suffering from a lack of professionalism or a lack of confidence?

I’m privileged to visit classrooms around the country every week and I believe it is the latter. We seem to have a lack of confidence in the use of ICT in teaching and learning. At home many children and their teachers are effectively using ICT to develop socially and at times economically. We need to build on these links between technology use at home and in other aspects of our lives and take these experiences into schools to help us develop confidence in learning. I believe technology can be transformational but we have to use it first.

One common excuse for technology not being used in classrooms is that the technology doesn’t work or that teachers can’t access materials that they need to be able to access. While this is not the only barrier to up-take, it is valid. Addressing reliability issues with hardware, connectivity and filtering must be given high priority by any school or LA. There are many ways to achieve this, that needn’t be costly to the establishment. What we need are imaginative solutions.

We also need to help each other by encouraging the development of good practice, sharing more, providing peer recommendations, encouraging people to develop personal learning networks and communities of practice.

Finally, as you know school leadership is very important to this government and we need to help existing and future school leaders understand the benefits of using technology to support and improve learning as well as what it means to be a responsible digital citizen.

By doing so, I hope that we can increase the amount of sharing of practice and resources amongst teachers and really develop authentic leaders of learning in Scotland. By improving the reliability and use of technology we will develop engaging and meaningful learning opportunities for young people, including opportunities for sharing achievement.  

What do you think? Why don’t you have your say and contribute to the on-line discussions taking place between the 12th September – 10th October. You can find out more information and join in at  http://glo.li/eduscotict.

 

Michael Russell
Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning

 

Related information

Technologies for Learning: Unpacking the Objectives – Introduction

Watch the video - Cabinet Secretary for Education Michael Russell discusses the future of Glow – the schools website