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Self-described 'female tekkies' give teachers new confidence

Computers find their niche in the classroom


by Barbara Black



NTIC's first partner was St. Dorothy School in St. Michel, where they still give weekly mentoring to teachers. They held a summer institute in 1997 for the South Shore (now Riverside) School Board, and are also working with the Laurentian (now Sir Wilfrid Laurier) School Board, Dawson College and Vanier College.

If you buy them, they will learn. Many parents, teachers and children know that this variation on the field-of-dreams syndrome tells the sad story of classroom computers over the past 15 years. Many schools have bought expensive PCs or Macs, often through parents' fundraising efforts, only to have them sit
gathering dust.

Now a group in Concordia's
Education Department are giving teachers the confidence and expertise to make those computers earn
their keep.

New Technologies for Information and Communication (NTIC) is part of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, a large, active interdisciplinary research group based in the Education Department. With the help of grants and several private supporters, the NTIC team is working with several local schools, colleges, school boards and the Ministry of Education to find the best way to use technology in the classroom.

When the team started research for the project, member Lauren Aislin said they read what she calls "the disappointment literature" -- grim accounts of how computers had failed to live up to rosy expectations. And when the team went out into the field to work with teachers, they often encountered anxiety and skepticism about the role of technology in the classroom.

By tailoring their approach to the individual client and by synthesizing the best research (an informational buffet that teachers rarely have the time to read), the team has developed an approach that opens up new avenues.

"We have to get away from the 'gameware' model of computers, and back to serving pedagogical goals," Aislin said. "We ask ourselves, How do we fit into the school's culture, resources, curriculum, schedule? How do we meet the teacher's goals and at the same time pique the interest of the students?"

Well-chosen software for learning is malleable and reusable, revealing new dimensions as the student moves through the school system.

"Subject-specific software can be used to spot-hit particular subjects with complex and aggregate skill demands, like math, and to assist students with special needs," Aislin said. "But by concentrating on a few well-known, open-ended programs which handle word-processing, spreadsheet, databases, presentation creation and drawing, teachers can create lesson units in versatile ways."

Learning, for children in the Information Age, will target media literacy and critical thinking. Technology, including digital and video cameras, gives children new tools to research, record, analyze and report learning. Moreover, it can give teachers a new window into children's thought and decision-making processes. The result, Aislin said, is learning that is "more sophisticated in design."

Students might go on a field trip, record it on a digital camera, transcribe their observations on a word-processor, create a database to track data, create spreadsheets to analyze and report results, do supplementary research on the Internet, and "publish" their report in a variety of forms.

A lot of schools put their computers in an unused classroom and call it the computer room, but the NTIC team believes that a better alternative is a computer "pod" (group of computers) in the classroom, or even mobile pods that can travel within the school.

The members of NTIC have come to this project from eclectic sources. Lauren Aislin's background is in literature, drama and digital graphic design; she is now a graduate student in Child Study. Sylwia Bielec, Carole Bamford, Jeannette Caron and Christine Truesdale are students in Educational Technology. Bielec's background is in commerce, Caron's in communication and distance education, and Truesdale's in the visual arts.

The team works to develop rapport with the teachers and break down that early resistance. "The elementary teachers are, for the most part, female, and the fact that we
are women who use technology
easily is inspirational for them," Truesdale said.

The demand for their expertise is heavy, so "to avoid cloning ourselves," they are starting to use video and the Web to provide teachers with support.

The Ministry of Education's Services à la communauté anglophone -- direction des politiques et des projects continues to provide support, as do grants from FCAR and SSHRC, and assistance from Norshield and Apple Canada. The team is supervised by Professor Philip Abrami, Director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, and David Wells, Director of the MA in Educational Technology.

Copyright 1998 Concordia's Thursday Report.