As a lead technology teacher of Northlands largest all girl’s secondary school, I have grave concerns about
the proposal
to fully integrate Digital technology into the New Zealand Curriculum and Te
Marautanga o Aotearoa in 2018.
Document
Link: http://www.education.govt.nz/news/digital-technology-to-become-part-of-the-new-zealand-curriculum-and-te-marautanga-o-aotearoa/
Education Minister Hekia Parata announced the
change to the New Zealand Curriculum back in July this year, proposing that digital technology would be integrated
across all levels of the curriculum, with the intention that it would support
young people to develop skills, confidence and interest in digital technologies
and lead them to careers and opportunities across the IT sector.
"The information technology sector is one of
the fastest growing sectors in New Zealand, with a demand for skilled
graduates. This step will support young people to develop skills, confidence
and interest in digital technologies," Ms Parata said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11668961
5th July 2016 Nicholas Jones
Digital
Technology needs to be taken seriously according to Chief executive of Orion
Health, Ian McCrae Concerns, our children need to be able to competent in
English and Maths, but if we are not preparing them to be technically literate
we are not equipping them for the future.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/82069579/Digital-technology-in-schools-as-important-as-English-and-maths Te Ahua Maitland - July 17 2016
Employment prospects for people with digital
technology skills are excellent. It's been estimated that the number of
digital/ICT jobs will grow by 23-53% over the next decade, and many software
development companies are already struggling to recruit staff. However,
it is not just the digital skills our students will require in the future, they
will also need to be adequately prepared with the 21st century
skills of creativity and innovation, critical thinking, communication and
collaboration.
Education systems around the world are already doing
this, in England the principals of computer programming have featured within
the curriculum for children from the age of five or six, since 2014. While earlier
this year in the US, President Obama launched Computer Science for all, which
aims to provide pupils from kindergarten to high school with programming and
coding skills. Is NZ moving fast enough?
So what are
the concerns?
A lack of
skills and time, a lot of our staff in schools are not adequately trained to
deliver a digital technology program. The Digital technology program within
secondary schools has changed dramatically over the last 20 years, they have
had to move from teaching typing skills, to Microsoft Office, power point, word
and excel. They are now expected to understand and deliver knowledge of algorithms,
programming, data representation, digital devices and infrastructure,
digital applications and humans and computers.
Our staff need professional development and time to implement this new
knowledge. I cannot see IT professionals prepared to enter the teaching
profession, with pay cuts, appraisal expectations, workload etc, it doesn’t sound
particularly enticing. We have to work with what we have and in order to do
this we have to train and support our existing staff.
A
pedagogical shift in thinking is required, moving away from teacher centred teaching
and learning to student centred learning. We need to stop worrying about
assessment and results, moving towards student lead projects in context,
learning alongside the students, individual programs and cross curricular
links. Learning that reflects what happens in the real world, not in silos!
Parents and
caregivers are always concerned about the time children spend on devices and
cyber bullying. We cannot protect our students from the real world by locking
down access to social networking sites at school, most have access to it
through their own data and at home. What we do need to do is teach our students
to be good citizens, responsible people and make them aware that what the post
or comment on, is there for ever as a digital footprint.
They are still
a lot of parents concerned that the education system is not equipping their
children with the literacy and numeracy they need, and that we should be going
back to basics. However, with a great curriculum all skills could be delivered
through a cross curricular context.
What about
beyond 2018?
According to
the Digital Technologies in School 2014 Report, Secondary schools were
significantly more likely than primary schools to report they were using the
following future-focused learning applications: digital textbooks (39 percent
and 23 percent, respectively), Khan Academy (49 percent and 31 percent,
respectively, and learner analytics (13 percent and two percent, respectively).
Hence, as the curriculum changes, more and more primary schools will be
exploring the above mentioned skills resulting in students coming through the secondary
system having already experienced most of the current available technologies, and
as teachers we will have to constantly upskill in the latest technologies in
order to support and work alongside our students as they will become more
knowledgeable than ourselves.
References:
Adams
Becker, S., Freeman, A., Giesinger Hall, C., Cummins, M., and Yuhnke, B.
(2016). NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media
Consortium
Digital
Technologies in School - 2014 Report, October 2014. PREPARED FOR 2020 Communications
Trust. PREPARED BY Mark Johnson, Annita Wood, Pip Sutton
Digital technology to become part of the New Zealand
Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa
Trends Shaping Education 2016
http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/trends-shaping-education-2016_trends_edu-2016-en#page1
Future State
2030: The global megatrends shaping governments http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdf
Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New
Zealand Schools http://thehub.superu.govt.nz/project/evaluation-glance-priority-learners-new-zealand-schools
No comments:
Post a Comment