AusPICT - European ICT Teacher Training in Australia
John Rawson & Andrew Naylor
“AusIPict” – St Patricks College, Launceston
Abstract
Teachers have been encouraged both at Commonwealth and State levels to embrace the integration of Information Communication Technology into their classroom teaching. Traditionally three major obstacles stand in the way of this process:
1 Making computer processing power available to students on an “at need” basis.
2 Equipping teachers with the computer hardware and software necessary for lesson preparation and delivery.
3 Equipping teachers with the skills to integrate the relevant ICT knowledge into their teaching methodology.
The “Pedagogical ICT Licence” addresses the third factor.
The Licence was developed in Denmark in the late 1990s. It was developed by teachers, for teachers with the goal that teachers did not just need to learn ICT skills: teachers needed to explore ways of integrating these skills into their teaching. The resulting package has become something of a European phenomenon. Over 70,000 teachers in Denmark and Norway have so far graduated from the scheme, and several other countries are currently running pilot programs. The program embraces the use of online technology combined with personal contact and collaboration.
ICT TRAINING FOR TEACHERS: SOME BACKGROUND
The “Digital Age” has been widely promoted by writers and educators (see, eg Jukes (2005a, 2005b)). Education systems and their infantry – the classroom teachers – are facing increasing pressure to follow the lead of industry and commerce, and adopt Information Communication Technology in a major way.
The need to better exploit the teaching and learning potential of ICT is widely accepted and supported. However, to date, this potential has not been realised in any significant way, particularly the potential to transform how, what, where and why students learn what they do. (DEST 2003)
In the experience of the authors there have been three major factors which have limited the integration of Information Communication Technology with classroom teaching:
1 Making computer processing power available to students on an “at need” basis.
2 Equipping teachers with the computer hardware and software necessary for lesson preparation and delivery.
3 Equipping teachers with the skills to integrate the relevant ICT knowledge into their teaching methodology. (See also, for example, DEST, 2000)
Governments and education systems are beginning to provide solutions for the first factor. Such solutions as lap top computers, computer “pods” distributed throughout a school and equipping all classrooms with some computers are being trialed throughout Australia.
States and individual schools are implementing programs which provide teachers with laptop computers and relevant software to address the second factor.
The Pedagogical ICT Licence addresses the last factor.
Training Teachers in ICT
The increasing availability of computer resources is placing schools and their staff under even greater pressure to integrate ICT into classroom practice.
The authors have been involved in teacher ICT training for a combined total of 50 years in six states and two countries. We have elected to summarise the training techniques experienced in that time by describing two broad models:
1 The “Osmosis” method
This system of training surrounds the teacher with technology – and then leaves them to make what they will out of it. The theory behind this seems to be that eventually, some sort of ICT skill will “seep into” the classroom teacher by virtue of the proximity of technology.
Although some enthusiastic teachers have actually ended up “mastering the beast” – generally this approach has been quite successful in alienating teachers from the technology that is supposed to be so helpful to them.
2 The “Classroom” technique (also called the “One-shot” method)
Here teachers are timetabled into formal classroom sessions – usually run by an IT expert who has little or no understanding of the actual teaching needs. They get wonderful training in a piece of software, become enthused by the possibilities, and then are released back into the real world where opportunities to use the knowledge may be strictly limited. Teachers soon forget how to use the software and when an opportunity to make use of it finally does present, they can’t remember how to do it!
This approach seems to have produced a large amount of boredom and frustration.
Successful Features of Traditional ICT Training
A series of criteria were developed from the authors’ experiences with traditional ICT Training. These were:
1 “Just in time”
ICT training was especially appreciated when it met the current needs of the participant. Examples of this were learning how to create a table of contents in MS Word, or learning how to transfer a spreadsheet from Lotus to Excel.
2 Appropriate
ICT training had to be seen as appropriate for the occupation concerned. An individual involved in secretarial typing was less likely to perceive training in a spreadsheet program as useful than a bookkeeper in the same company.
3 The equipment was transparent
An operator who had to spend time learning the basics of operating the hardware was less likely to have a good training experience than someone who was already proficient in basic computer tasks.
4 Applicable
The software was seen as applicable to the daily tasks of the individual.
5 Interaction
Classes where the person could interact with the trainer were much more effective than classes which were either too large for this interaction, or which were run on a “follow the training manual” principle.
6 Product directed
Classes where the trainee actually produced usable product (eg the accountant who transferred his Lotus files to Excel) were likely to be more highly valued.
7 Dedicated time
Training sessions were normally set for evenings or weekends where the employee was given time or remuneration in lieu. Participants indicated that they preferred training away from the place of employment. One of the reasons sometimes cited was the lack of distraction of normal work tasks.
The “Special” situation of teacher ICT training
Normal ICT training could be termed a “first-tier” training. If we train a typist to use a word processor, then the computer software is a replacement for the old mechanism. The word processor will perform all the functions of the typewriter – and add a few more for good measure. This type of ICT usage is “first-tier” because it is a direct replacement. The computer performs a direct simulation of the original function.
“Second-tier” training occurs when we want to ‘train the trainers’. Here we not only introduce ICT features, but we expand from the ICT milieu to encompass the problems the trainers may have with the software and with the people they are handling.
Some of the work that teachers do in a class-room with ICT is obviously “Second-tier” – because they will be training students in various forms of ICT, so they need to have training beyond personal usage.
ICT training for teachers, however goes beyond this stage as well. Teachers have to understand the “ICT” components (first-tier). They also have to train others (“second-tier”). In addition, they need to understand the implications of the ICT presented, in such a way that they can integrate it into a new conceptual environment – the learning/teaching environment of a classroom. We could term ICT training for teachers a “third-tier” level of training.
This distinction is made clear if we compare examples of tasks from different sectors. In the commercial sector, an office worker may need to present a report with a table of contents and page numbering. In the educational sector a teacher may be contemplating a unit on creative writing. The secretary will directly apply their knowledge of the word processing program to the material at hand – a first tier process. The teacher will decide on the elements to be taught; then an appropriate ICT package from a range of options and finally teach the students the software skills needed. The ICT options could range from simple word processing to a Desktop Publishing program to a presentation program or even to web publishing. These three steps constitute a “three-tier” process.
Third Tier ICT Training: The Integrated Approach
In the last ten years a number of “integrated” approaches have been trialed in various countries.
The philosophy behind an “integrated” approach is simple. Teachers should learn ICT skills needed for their own teaching to the level that they can pass these skills on to students, and be encouraged to produce relevant work which they are able to take into their own classroom lessons.
Experience has shown that this approach has much more success in involving teachers in the first place, and having a lasting effect within their classroom teaching, in the second place. Elizabeth Probert (Probert 2004) describes training 15 science teachers to create PowerPoint presentations of their units:
‘All enjoyed the experience very much with one dramatically announcing that his teaching “had been changed for the good forever”.’
This approach was the basis of the NOF (National Opportunities Fund) in the UK which operated between 1999 and 2003. Under this scheme an Approved Training Provider (ATP) devised a program which delivered ICT skills to teachers based around actual classroom needs.
The MirandaNet report on the NOF training scheme identified (amongst others) five factors which would have lead to greater success (Preston, 2004):
· Develop a collegiate approach to investigation, exploration and support.
· Encourage the taking of risks by the advanced and the adventurous.
· Promote research based practice techniques in order to implement and sustain change in classrooms.
· Suggest web based and paper based portfolios of exemplars for the whole staff to learn from.
· Ensure that assignments were based on actual classroom practice and therefore as closely as possible were integrated into teachers’ normal planning processes.
The Pedagogical ICT Licence
The Pedagogical ICT licence was developed in Denmark in the late 1990s. It was developed by teachers, for teachers with the goal that teachers did not just need to learn ICT skills: teachers needed to explore ways of integrating these skills into their teaching. The resulting package, consisting of a set of core compulsory modules and twelve optional modules, has become something of a European phenomenon. So far 60,000 teachers in Denmark and 20,000 teachers in Norway have participated in the Licence. There are ongoing pilot programs in Greece, Italy, Ghana, Cameroon (and Tasmania) and several other countries are planning to start pilot programs in the near future. The package has also proven adaptable to ICT training in fields as diverse as health care and pre-school care.
We encountered the program in 2003 whilst searching for ways of delivering high-quality ICT professional development to our staff. The criteria were developed from the analysis of ICT training given earlier in this paper. Thus we were looking for a program which would deliver training that was, in particular
· “Just in time”
· Appropriate and applicable
· Interactive
· Product directed
· “Third Tier”: blending ICT skills, ICT teaching skills; and integrating program projects with teaching content.
After some negotiation with Uni•C (the Danish branch of the Department of Education which develops and runs the licence program) we obtained the rights to localise and develop the program for the Australian educational jurisdiction.
One of the impulses which pushed the development of the Danish licence was the disillusionment of teachers with then current “Computer Drivers Licence” programs, such as “ECDL” (The European Computer Drivers Licence). While such programs attempted to impart a range of ICT skills to teachers and other professionals, the computer skills taught were never integrated into the educational context. The Danish developers of the Pedagogical ICT Licence then, were charged with creating a training program which would be
· Teacher-centred
· Classroom-centred
· Teacher-implemented
The NOF trainers were not (as a rule) teachers. Trainers (facilitators) in the Pedagogical Licence, on the other hand, must be teachers – currently teaching in a classroom.
The Framework of the Licence
The structure of the Pedagogical Licence consists of a total of eight modules (four compulsory and four elected). Each module generally takes between four and six weeks to complete, so the whole Licence can be finished in eight months. Delivery of the Pedagogical Licence rests upon four main pillars.
“Facilitators”, not “Trainers”
When a group of teachers come together to undertake the Licence, the facilitator for that course presents a six-hour introductory session. In this six hour session, participants are given a broad overview of the course; they are introduced to the mechanism of downloading on-line course materials; the use of the electronic conferencing system; and the idea of collegial participation. At the end of the session participants have formed small teams of between two and five people and made a broad decision about the modules they wish to pursue. They have also made a personal contact with “their” facilitator.
Collegiate (team) involvement
Throughout the course of the Licence program the facilitator will interact with the teams through the electronic conferencing system. Teams decide on which modules they are going to tackle. They create projects which utilise the ICT skills of the current module and these projects are drafted, presented to the facilitator through the conference system, and improved to a final level. Because there are no “fixed competence levels”, a team’s success is decided by how they are able to express improvements in their projects. This means that no matter how skilled the course members may be, they are always challenged to improve their ICT skill. Conversely, even teachers with very low beginning skill levels will be able to show an improvement in understanding and performance. No absolute level of proficiency is required to obtain the licence, only a measurable self-improvement in the ability of each member of the team.
Integrated project work
The whole thrust of the Licence is to empower teachers to integrate the ICT skills of the module into a useful, relevant teaching project which they will then use in their classroom teaching. For example, here is the task for the assessment project in the Presentation Module:
Choose three year levels where work with multimedia programs could be carried out.
Describe briefly the themes that the students work with and what the multimedia production should cover.