All teachers are learners – All learners are teachers

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Recently I got a comment from someone I respect greatly and I wanted to keep the discussion going.  As it was an old post I thought it best to post my comment as a blog response.  I love this type of discussion and thank Peter for taking the time to comment on my blog and I would love others to respond and give me their insights on my original post and related discussions in my post “the great white hope”
Let me first say I won’t be tearing anyone to shreds. I have no wish to “tear (you) to shreds” and I certainly hope that was not your intent. I blog to invite intelligent discourse and whilst I do not have my own book to reference from I am happy to discuss all insights in a measured and intelligent way.

I would have loved to have discussed this in Sydney and please next time anyone is in my presentations please ask questions as discourse in presentations is what moves learning forward. Disagreement can also drive learning forward.  You are right in saying that my focus in my presentation is that it is all about the students but I think you have misinterpreted why I have that focus.  I hardly think that by me saying that putting students first and in charge of their learning I am promoting a narrow model of education.  My focus is that for good teaching to happen teachers need to focus on student learning as the core purpose of their pedagogy.  I am saying that teaching should be student focussed plain and simple.  I was never in my opinion marginalising the role of teachers but suggesting that the focus of professional development and pedagogy should be on how to use these tools for student learning.

In relation to your citing of the Becta research, which was in 2007, can I first say that I have never said that teachers are not important in classrooms.  I have simply said that students are more important because if they are not in the centre of the picture then what is the point?
2008research from a review, which draws evidence from 17 recent impact studies, found:
* The use of ICT impacts positively on educational performance in primary schools, particularly in English, and less so in science and not in mathematics, although there is some evidence that longer use of ICT by young people is linked to improved mathematics scores (Machin et al 2006).
* Use of ICT improves attainment levels of school children in English, in science and in design and technology between ages 7 and 16, particularly in primary schools (Harrison et al 2002).
* In OECD countries there is a positive association between the length of time of ICT use and students’ performance in PISA mathematics tests (OECD 2004).
* Schools with higher levels of e-maturity demonstrate a more rapid increase in performance scores than those with lower levels (Underwood et al 2005.
* Schools with good ICT resources achieve better results than those that are poorly equipped (Pittard, Bannister & Dunn 2003).
* ICT investment impacts on educational standards most when there is fertile ground in schools for making efficient use of the technology (Machin 2006).
* Providing structured approaches to Internet research develops students’ search and research skills, which are transferable across the curriculum (Beta 2006).
* Broadband access in classrooms results in significant improvements in pupils’ performance in national tests taken at age 16 (Underwood 2005).
* Introducing interactive whiteboards results in pupils’ performance in national tests in English (particularly for low-achieving pupils and for writing), mathematics and science improving more than that of pupils in schools without interactive whiteboards (Higgins 2005).
* Issuing teachers with their own laptops increases positive attitudes towards their work (Becta 2003)”
It also goes on to say that teachers pass through three pedagogic phases as they learn to use IWBs effectively. In the first phase, the supported didactic, teachers use the technology in the same way as an ordinary whiteboard. The second phase, interactive, involves deeper understanding of the technology and results in teachers using it to enhance traditional teaching rather than as ‘the driving force for conceptual understanding and cognitive development’ (ibid).

By contrast, those teachers who used IWBs most effectively were in the enhanced interactivity phase” Which was the point of my presentation that enhanced interactivity is best sought through the partnership between teachers and students whereby knowledge is co constructed instead of spoon-fed.

Teachers do not have to have all the answers re IWB usage anymore that philosophy is based on an old Cartesian model of learning of “I think therefore I am” when for us to be 21st century learners we need to be engaged in more participative learning style where “we participate therefore we are” (Seeley Brown keynote 2007)
The central issue is not the teaching or the IWB – it is the professional development and ICT Integration into Digital Taxonomies that will change the use of IWBs, because they will be programmed into the ‘norms’. I don’t know what ‘extreme’ constructivism is, but IWBs are best put to use by the students as it is the one device in the ICT classroom that can be used a group tool – by virtue of it’s ergonomic design. Learning is a conversation in my view, and that of many – and IWBs are best used in collaborative settings.   We have moved beyond technology alone saving us and it is now just an environment this shift in education has allowed the focus to move toward the personalisation of education where individual needs are placed above and beyond the needs of the teachers.  Education in my view is changing where teachers will need to develop autonomy and responsibility for their professional development and the best way to do this is via collaborative learning with students.
We have now shifted from
A teaching focus to a learning focus
Teaching as a private event to teaching as a collaborative practice
School Improvement as an option to school improvement as a requirement
Mandated accountability to mutual accountability
(Nussbuam Beach 2008 http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/ )

In schools I have been to, where IWBs are used well – it is by the students with sites such as Mindomo – it is used in way, which Ray Oldenburg talks about as ‘third spaces’. Oldenburg suggests that third places are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. The teacher is not the expert, but an expert guide with life experience who works with the students – not to fill them with content.
Lastly..
In regards to the roll marking in the schools we went to this was their one tool after 2 years of practice.  I still disagree that this is a useful use of an iwb especially if it is done everyday it becomes just as pointless as marking the roll via analogue means.  Like all teaching things work best when they are remixed and ideas are fresh, marking the roll in these classrooms became a routine albeit a different routine but still I would say the use of iwb to support multiple TRIBES strategies such community circles and reflections has a more profound effect on restorative practice than hitting a board to say you are here each morning.

Update** After I wrote this post I recieved a tweet from Sherryl Nussbuam Beach to her video and it reinforced all my thoughts and summed it up so well I thought I would add it to my post. Apologies for not embedding it was having technical issues.

Powerful learning

Please I encourage everyone to enter into this discussion so I can and others learn from the disagreement discourse community which is blogs