Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

Following the trackback from Peter Ford’s latest post in his blog, “Why I am not a blogvangelist… to Terry’s post, Blogvangelism, podvangelism and wikivangelism: why?, it reminded me of why I called this blog by this title. Will Richardson, expressed the same sentiments in his posting back in January 2005:

“More about learning about your passion to gain a passion for learning … this isn’t about blogging, it’s about learning” …

In trying to encourage 21st century methods in the classroom you might have to act and speak like an ‘evangelist’, but it’s learning that you are being passionate about. That’s why those that promote the use of ICT in the classroom can find it difficult to understand why our overtures are rejected. We rightly assume that the teacher, that is making that same old excuse for not using ICT, must have some empathy towards wanting the pupils in their care to learn. How come they don’t see the point?

Peter is only partly right when he says:

“The creative teacher has always been the key for me in providing the magic for educational blogging, not the blog itself. The technology plays a role, as do our students, but the engine for change is the innovative teacher.”

He will have heard me say before that, in my opinion, there are only three types of teachers, ‘those that deliver, those that adapt, and those that create’. The creative ones are a small percentage, the adapters, a larger group, but the majority are ‘deliverers’. (Since the early 1990s and the introduction of the National Curriculum we’ve trained a workforce of ‘deliverers’ - the percentage therefore has grown over the last 15 years.) To bring about 21st century learning environments, we have to reach down to those ‘deliverers’, and to do that we have to make ICT all-pervasive in the classroom.

I can’t agree therefore that the engine for change is necessarily the innovative teacher. Don’t they go on to become the ‘evangelists’ of the future? As I’ve stated before, I think it’s the teacher who is an ‘innovative adapter’ is more likely to produce change. These are the ones that watch “Hollyoaks” in the evening to have something to talk to the kids about the next day, and not only know that their pupils are blogging or podcasting or whatever, but look for ways in which they can harness those opportunities into wider learning experiences. They are learners themselves and revel in being so. We therefore need to turn more ‘deliverers’ into ‘adapters’, and help those ‘adapters’ become more ‘innovative’! This of course means changing the expectations of what constitutes success in their careers.