A number of grade-three schoolchildren have been given netbooks in a pilot project aimed at introducing hi-tech hardware in classrooms that, in Malta, are traditionally the domain of decidedly non-tech teaching.
It is true computers appeared in the classroom quite a few years ago in an effort by a government struggling to make sure students kept up with technological advances happening in education also elsewhere. However, what was done with those computers is the subject of a lot of anecdotal information, a large part of which is not exactly flattering. Apart from that, research subsequently carried out in many countries was not all positive, clearly indicating computers are merely tools that will be useful to aid learning only if the pedagogy that surrounds their usage is tailor-made to the needs of the learning community, with the computers taken on board as a means to an end. This does not mean the education system in this country does not need the latest technologies in classrooms. Quite the opposite. It is clear technology has become an intrinsic part of young students’ lives. When Marc Prensky coined the term “digital natives” a few years ago, he was referring to those generations that have grown up weaned on new media and information technologies.
A vast amount of research into the changes immersion in these technologies have brought about in the children who use them have indicated that the profile of the child one is dealing with now pedagogically is completely different from the typical child that populated the classrooms even as little as 10 years ago.
Children these days are plugged into computers, gaming consoles, smart mobiles and other digital hardware in ways no “digital immigrant” (to use another of Mr Prensky’s terms) can hope to understand without hard work.
The question here is whether many of the teachers in schools have actually done that hard work? Are they all capable of speaking the new language that has developed around the digital natives? Do they realise the way those not immersed in new media usage process information, according to research carried out even in Malta, differently from those who live and breathe the new technology?
It is a technology that gives children any information they want, instantly. That has brought about instantaneous communications networks that means that what cannot be found by the individual can be shared and quickly learnt. It can easily make the concept of the traditional classroom obsolete if one is not careful and those teachers who have not realised this already – for quite a few have – should become aware that the change needs to be accepted and pedagogies transformed to meet the challenges of the “new mind” that has been crafted from the symbioses with the technologies.
That is why it is good to have projects that involve technology in schools. It is true netbooks have already been deemed obsolete by some experts and that partnerships with technology firms are also a means of generating business for those firms, but the result remains one that is desirable and should be encouraged across the board.
However, that cannot happen without the training needed to bring up to scratch those teachers who are not knowledgeable in how technology can be an indispensable teaching tool. It is definitely not possible without the understanding that change will only be resisted to the detriment of learning and potentially resulting in the creation of lost generations.