Media in the Education - Scotland, Europe, Worldwide - D. McDougall, Anniesland College, Scotland

Grundtvig Learning Partnership

June 2011

The Global Context

Why Use ICT inLearning & Teaching?

“Australia

Due to the importance of ICTs in society and possibly in the future of education, identifying the possible obstacles to the integration of these technologies in schools would be an important step in improving the quality of teaching and learning. ”

“Malaysia

…innovative use of ICT can facilitate student centered learning (Drent, 2005). Hence, every classroom teacher should use learning technologies to enhance their student learning in every subject because it can engage the thinking, decision making, problem solving and reasoning behaviors of students.

”

“Malaysia

It is a fact that teachers are at the center of curriculum change and they control the teaching and learning process. Therefore, they must be able to prepare young people for the knowledge society in which the competency to use ICT to acquire and process information is very important

”

USA

“…those who have the opportunity to learn technology skills are in a better position to obtain and make use of technology than those who do not. Evolving occupations, multiple careers, and an increasingly mobile workforce contribute to this trend.

”

Europe (Serbia)

“The process of modernization of existing technologies is taking place much faster in production areas, and is rightly expected that schools and faculties follow the innovative processes and to educate young professionals in accordance with the needs of society and economy. ”

Barriers Technologyto the use of

Time

“Australia

The time required for developing technology skills, implementing technology and maintaining the courseware is a major area of concern for academics’.

   ”

“Malaysia

…lack of time is a factor that hinders technology integration in schools.

”

USA

One faculty member noted, “… it [distance education] requires acquiring new skills and more preparation for class than traditional formats in which they can rely on their already developed content expertise.

“”

Europe (Romania)

Not enough time to develop lessons that use the available technology“”

Motivation

USA

Some academics also lack the personal motivation to explore the potential of e-learning in their teaching and have thus failed to embrace the opportunity to access technology as a means of enhancing their teaching and to be seen to be innovative, ‘state of the art’ and progressive

“”

Australia

Several researchers indicate that one barrier that prevents teachers using ICT in their teaching is confidence.“”

“Malaysia

if a teacher is a creative thinker who likes the idea of constructing knowledge, is a life long learner, a social learner, and a decision maker, he may be more likely to use computers in more integrative and transformational ways that are useful and valuable to students instead of ways that promote and support traditional classroom practices

”

Europe (Ireland)

There was a strong allegiance to the face-to-face teaching model allied with a current of scepticism about e-learning, particularly around issues of quality, workload, and loss of control.

“”

Career Stage

Australia

…later and non-adopters of educational technology may be less adventurous, more risk averse, less comfortable with change, less intrinsically motivated and less likely try new and novel ideas

“”

“Malaysia

teachers with fewer years of experience were more likely to use computers in their classes than teachers with more years of experience… one of the factors that determine the extent to which teachers use computers in their classes may be the number of years they have been teaching.

”

USA

Since technological innovations have occurred rapidly in recent years, researchers considered age as a potential affective variable… Another variable measured was the number of years of experience in higher education

“”

Europe

In many countries the stage of teacher training was named as being crucial to blocking innovation, in that traditional and rigid pedagogic and assessment regimes are passed on to new teachers by the methods used to train them, limiting creative potential.

“”

The Scottish Context

PUMEC

Student perspectives on technology demand, perceptions & training needsA Report to HEFCE by NUS

Staff need to develop their own ICT skills to meet the requirements of their students

ICT has great potential to benefit the delivery of

teaching, but harnessing that potential is the predominant challenge

Students are concerned about the ICT competency of lecturers and academic staff

There are varying levels of ICT competence on the part of lecturers and staff and, whilst some are clearly skilled or at least able to function in an IT setting, others lack even the most rudimentary IT skills

21% of students thought their lecturers needed

additional training 42.9% would like

academics and teachers

to use ICT more

Older teachers continue to favour

old or outdated methods in a fashion that alienates students

Why must we increase

the use of technology

by teachers?

National Occupational

Standards for Teachers demands this Review of

Scotland’s Colleges

report and recommendations

Student expectations

International expansion of activities

Substantial investment in infrastructure

Support ThisPUMECHow Can

Sharing of best practice across the project partners

Dissemination of project outcomes to highlight deficiencies in current use of technologyTeachers/Trainers

involved in the project to become ‘champions’

Professional discussions and demonstrations of good/best practice in using technology to support teaching

Promote the use of a wide range of technologies as a core part of initial teacher training

TeachersWe SupportHow Can

Embed use of technology

in teacher training to a greater extent

Use of existing resources/staff

Provide training and resources to encourage use of technology

expertise

PDA ITT: use video-mediated micro teaching

Professional discussions and demonstrations of good/best practice in using technology

to support teaching

Teacher Training Institutions (TEIs) Micro Teaching for TQ(FE)

Danny McDougall00 44 141 357 6125 [email protected]

The Scottish Context