ICT in Schools - Activity 4: Is there a need for teachers?

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Activity 4: Is there a need for teachers?

Reading and Reflection: 2 hrs
Group activity: 2 hrs
Reflection: 30 mins

4 hrs 30 mins

There is often the initial perception, by those who do not know much about computers in schools, that computers will replace teachers. This is probably based on the experiences in industrial training, where computer-based training programmes and simulators have replaced trainers with varying degrees of success. If a teacher can be replaced by a computer, they should be, because that would be a very inadequate teacher. You may argue that teachers are necessary to maintain discipline and organise learning. Outcomes-based education does place the teacher in new roles and it does place more responsibility on the learner to become involved. As we saw in the previous activity, computers can play a role to support learners in new roles.

In focusing on the teacher, we are faced with two issues:

the role of the teacher teaching about ICT (which we will discuss in Activity 4 and 5)
the role of the teacher teaching with ICT (which we will discuss in Activity 5 and 6)

Do teachers over teach?

At face value two pieces of research have shown that people (and especially young people) have the potential to learn a lot more informally than teachers are prepared to acknowledge. We say "at face value" because it would be an error to conclude that learners do not need teachers. However teachers do need to re-assess what they do in the act of "teaching". Teaching is often described by teachers themselves as 'transferring knowledge to the learner'. If this is all that teaching is about computers could probably do a fairly good job of replacing the teacher. In this activity you will consider this research about informal learning and re-assess your roles as a teacher of ICT skills.

Before you read about Vygotsky's spontaneous learning, prepare to reflect on its most important message to you. What does he suggest should be the role of schooled learning? How could we make schooled learning more effective? What are the key roles of the teacher?

Click here to read about Vygotsky's spontaneous learning

Group Activity 4a - Discussion of spontaneous learning

1. Write a message to your group (using the subject heading "Spontaneous learning") and discuss these questions:

What does Vygotsky suggest should be the role of schooled learning?
How could we make schooled learning more effective?
What are the key roles of the teacher in schooled learning?
How can we apply this to the integration of ICT?

You may be breathing a sigh of relief now that Vygotsky has shown that schools and teachers could be important in the development of learners. However, it must be concerning that most teachers do not teach very differently from their own teachers and teachers in generations before that. Yet teachers have increasing access to new learning theory, resources and technology.

With the introduction of computers (and later the Internet) into schools a new kind of teacher and teaching activity emerged - computer teachers (or similarly named) who teach "computer literacy". This person is often one of the few on the staff who has some computer knowledge and is assigned computer or computer literacy classes. Since teachers often teach by transferring information these teachers naturally proceeded to teach about the computer, focussing on what they know and what they assume the learners do not know. School management then realised that even non-teachers could do this, so there are many cases where non-teachers are teaching about ICT in schools. Is this acceptable, given your understanding of ICT Integration? We will focus on this practice in Activity 5.

What we would like to explore now is to what extent it is necessary for learners to know about ICT before they can work with ICT? Dr Sugata Mitra, Director of NIIT’s Centre for Research in Cognitive Systems in New Delhi, India has been conducting thought-provoking research on what he now refers to as Minimally Invasive Education. Consider this question critically while reading extracts from Dr Mitra's keynote address at the Innovation in Education Conference in Cape Town in April 2004.

Click here to read about Dr Mitra's experiments in minimally invasive education

Group Activity 4b - Do we need to teach ICT skills?

1. Write a message to your group (using the subject heading "Minimally invasive education") and discuss the following questions:

What conclusions do you draw from reading about Dr Mitra's work?
Are there parallels between these conclusions and those you drew about Vygotsky's spontaneous learning?
What are the practical shortcomings of Dr Mitra's experiments for ICT in schools?
Reflecting on both readings in Activity 4, what lessons can we learn regarding our own practice in teaching ICT skills, and how can we adapt this practice to make it more effective?

2. Make reflective comments in your e-diary.

Click here to go to Activity 5- Myth of Computer literacy

ICT in Schools

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