An expert on ICT or an expert on learning?
I was showing one of my nieces a piece of software (Game Maker) earlier that I in turn learned through the students at my school. She is the same age as some of my students and it got me thinking again about how best to sever these youngsters with respect to their ICT education.
Every year the pupils we get into Secondary (S1) have skills which are better than the previous year’s intake. Over the last 3 years this has led to us changing our S1 curriculum 3 times! We have now moved over to an assessment system that is based on an (open-ended) portfolio of work produced, rather than solely overtaking certain skills or competencies. One of the portfolio areas relates to “programming”. The students can submit any work which is relevant, and we make some suggestions of how they could overtake this area. One way they can do this is by using “Game Maker”. It was a brave step to include this as it was a piece of software that I had never used.
I was happy to do this however because I got to the point, a good few years ago, of realising that I did not have to be an expert in the software to “teach” the kids how to use it. “I am not an expert in gamer maker but an expert in learning.”
For some staff who teach ICT this is just too radical! If we are going to help the youngsters to fly higher and further than we do (or did), then we must stop limiting them with the limits of our own experience and skills. While it might scare us a little, we should give the youngsters more control in terms of what happens within our/their ICT lessons.
So what is our role (as “teachers”) in the ICT classroom? I am still wrestling with how best to help the kids “fly higher and further”. I once heard Alan November say (paraphrase)… ”Teachers, get out of the way and let the kids learn.” I think that as long as I can recognise some truth in this, I will still have something to share with the kids!
I think you’re spot on. It’s not important to know how the switches work, or which buttons to press. It’s how to guide kids in their learning that is important, to help them out when they need it. I’ve got a podcast recorded this week of Marc Prensky, also talking a lot about game making. I was also lucky enough to see kids using GameMaker to make games to learn. Gerat stuff. Like you say - ICT is not about the ICT, it’s about how we are using it and, by proxy, how we learn.
I mentioned in a post a while ago that some of the Jordanhill students were concerned that pupils would know more than them about ICT. (I asked all the students, not just Computing, I hasten to add.) I think the comments are more interesting than the post! In particular, I liked that Ian said many of the new and exciting developments in his subject “have been student-led or initiated by students“.
On the programming for S1/S2 front, I like Stagecast. Some authorities have it installed as part of the standard desktop. (Well it’s definitely in some Primary schools.) It is easy to use, my children loved it and great looking results can be produced with minimal pain. Download the demo version, work through the tutorial and let me know what you think. Cross-curricular possibilities?
Thanks for the comments Guys! It was interesting to read your post David, and have my feelings on this confirmed. It will be interesting to look back on this in 10 years time, and see just how much of an isue this has become!