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Your experience with staff development for
ICT Integration, your expectations of change and your undertsanding
of what you observe will be greatly enhanced by an understanding
of the experiences of many teachers that have passed this
route before you.
One of the best-recorded processes of teacher
ICT development took place a long time ago when computers
were first being introduced into schools. The Apple Classrooms
of Tomorrow was started in the mid-1980's, but we have learnt
many valiable lessons from that project. The models of evolution
in the classroom that ACOT developed are based on their observations
over several years. Although the model bears considerable
resemblance to what was often seen to happen in practice,
one should bear in mind that individuals do not act exactly
according to models. Bearing in mind that limitation to models,
read the fourth year findings on Patterns of Change. Reflect
on your own personal experiences of ICT development and those
of your colleagues. Do you find any parallels?
Click
here to read the Fourth Year Findings: Patterns of Change
Reflecting on the 5 stages of evolution
of classroom practice, the following should be noted:
- Step 1-3 normally takes the best part
of two years, especially where the educators are the first
from that school to be introduced to technology. Once there
is a core of existing technology users in the school, these
same steps could take less than a year for an individual
educator to work through, because of the support that colleagues
provide.
- Progress in the Adoption stage was often
hampered by bureaucratic demands that entrenched old paradigms,
and educators' perceptions of what is expected of them as
classroom managers e.g. good grades, silent classes, covering
the prescribed content. The same constraints exist in this
country.
- Success in the Appropriation stage is
dependent on regular access to the computer, so that it
becomes a natural tool. This cannot be realistically expected
in one-computer schools or schools where lab use has to
be scheduled well in advance.
- Very little was reported on the Invention
stage. Significantly this was four years after the project
was launched. Clearly, there is no general fast-tracking
possible for the acceptance of technology and the accompanying
change in individuals. It takes time - a fact that cannot
be ignored by evaluators of the impact of technology on
education. A minimum time scale for recording change should
be 2-3 years.
- It was interesting to note the student
initiation of peer support at very early stages in the project.
Teachers took time to adapt to this “new order”
and, when they did, harnessed this to the advantage of both
themselves and their learners.
Considered in the light of the complexities
of change, the challenge to implement a successful staff ICT
development program is immense.
“If there is one truism in the
vast research literature on change, it is that the magnitude
of change persons are asked to make is inversely proportional
to their likelihood of making it." (Guskey)
Consider the change that we expect teachers
to make when introducing ICT to the classroom along the lines
of the competencies listed above. We are expecting the teachers
to change both classroom practice and to acquire and apply
new ICT skills. This is a multiple expectation and, viewed
in the light of Guskey’s conclusion about the likelihood
of success, one should be especially cautious about expecting
too much in too short a space of time. It is easy to implement
short staff development programs to large numbers of teachers,
but meaningful change will only be evident if a long-term
strategy of meaningful support and development is planned.
ACOT did some research on support and interaction
and it is interesting to note the evolution in interaction
that takes place. This helps us to understand the different
kinds of support that is required for teachers learning with
ICT, and when we can expect teachers to start supporting and
interacting with each other. Support will be an important
part of a staff development programme. When you do the following
reading, make a table and plot the nature of support required
at different stages of evolution as teachers learn to teach
with ICT.
Click
here to read the ACOT research on The Relationship Between
Technological Innovation and Collegial Interaction
Subsequently, there has been more research
and other models have been developed, but the underlying evolution
remains quite similar. These models that represent stages
through which teachers typically go, are useful to increase
our understanding and ability to observe and analyse our colleagues'
progress. Click
here to read about further models of technology adoption and
change.
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