Inquiry Learning in an ICT-rich Environment

Inquiry Learning in an ICT-rich Environment (Kellow, J.M. 2007)

The Kellow (2007) article really interested me in that a programme that we use at FBS (KnowledgeNet) was being used but in a totally different way. It made me wonder just where the e-learning at FBS could or will go, and what the ultimate vision of our e-learning leader is.

In this article the children were using Knowledge Net as an inquiry tool, while here at school we are simply using it as a means of communication, using the notice board, contacts, calendar etc. We have made the leap to have each class have a page where their work and photos can be stored and viewed and every class is encouraged to write a learning reflection each week. This does not automatically happen and there is still some resistance to this.

Teacher buy-in is probably the biggest problem. Reflection in itself was difficult to get buy-in for, so the use of technology to do this is even tougher! It is little wonder that our e-learning leader becomes frustrated when trying to complete the simplest of PD tasks. I sometimes think we are still in the vintage years of e-learning (Campbell, 2004) where the role of ICT’s is seen primarily as a publishing tool or, worse yet, a solution looking for a problem!

Or is this just me? Perhaps it’s me that needs to lift my game. As a leader surly it is my job to present ideas with clarity and with sufficient enthusiasm to ensure the rest of the staff are on-board and do buy-in to ideas that the management team value.

So... How to do this? The on-going saga of my life at work!

digital natives revisited

When reading Catherine O’Brien’s article I was able to relate to her situation. She had her son, described as a digital native, listening to his ipod, chatting on-line and revising for his exams.

My daughter is a little older and has no exams to revise for, but I am still amazed at the multi-tasking she seems capable of. She is often found listening to her music on her ipod, texting a friend (or set of friends!) on her latest phone, chatting to other friends on-line through facebook and watching her favourite programme on TV!

I am aware that the youth of today, the digital natives, are said to be able to multi-task, but I have to ask how much of this information is actually taken in? And if my daughter was revising for exams in this fashion I would be concerned as to how well would she do?