ICT or Computing: a debate

Michael Gove’s speech on ICT in his own words

From my enewsletter 15th January 2012

A précis of  the speech Michael Gove delivered at BETT on 11^th Jan 2012 with added hyperlinks:

All around us, the world has changed in previously unimaginable and impossible ways. Where once clerks scribbled on card indexes, now office workers roam the world from their desktop. Genomes have been decoded and biological engineering and synthetic biology are transforming medicine. The boundary between biology and IT is already blurring into whole new fields, like bio-informatics.

But education has barely changed. A Victorian schoolteacher could enter a 21st century classroom and feel completely at home. Whiteboards may have eliminated chalk dust but a teacher still stands in front of the class, talking, testing and questioning.

But that model won’t be the same in twenty years’ time. It may well be extinct in ten.

First, technology has the potential to disseminate learning much more widely than ever before. Subjects, classes and concepts that were previously limited to a privileged few are now freely available to any child or adult with an internet connection, all over the world [such as] 02 learn, iTunes U, Khan Academy.

Brilliant lessons can be delivered through a mixture of online and teacher-led instruction. In areas of specialist teacher shortage, specialist teaching could be provided for groups of schools online, [for example] The Further Maths Support Programme.

I’m not just talking about opportunities for pupils to learn. The Royal Shakespeare Company is working with the University of Warwick on an online professional development learning platform to study for a Post Graduate qualification in the Teaching of Shakespeare. The Knowledge is Power Programme, is using digital technology to share lessons from its most proficient teachers.

Second, just as technology raises profound questions about how we learn, it also prompts us to think about how we teach.

Games and interactive software can help pupils acquire complicated skills and rigorous knowledge in an engaging and enjoyable way. Adaptive software has the ability to recognise and respond to different abilities, personalising teaching for every pupil. With the expert help of a teacher, students can progress at different rates through lessons calibrated to stretch them just the right amount. Games developed by Marcus Du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, are introducing children to advanced, complicated maths problems.

Third, technology brings unprecedented opportunities for assessment. Each pupil’s strengths and weaknesses can be closely monitored. Teachers can adjust lesson plans to target areas where pupils are weakest, and identify gaps in knowledge quickly and reliably.

New technology is a disruptive force. It innovates, and invents; it flattens hierarchies, and encourages creativity and fresh thinking. That’s why, rather than focusing on hardware or procurement, we are investing in training teachers so that they can feel confident using technological tools and resources for their own and their pupils’ benefit, both within and beyond the classroom, and can adapt to new technologies as they emerge.

We will be looking at initial teacher training courses carefully so that teachers get the skills and experience they need to use technology confidently.

We must also encourage teachers to learn from other schools. We are already working with the Open University on Vital, a programme encouraging teachers to share ICT expertise between schools. The Department for Education is going to provide dedicated funding to Teaching Schools to support this work.

The disruptive, innovative, creative force of new technology also pushes us to think about the curriculum. The best degrees in computer science are based on logic and set theory and prepare students for immensely rewarding careers and world-changing innovations. But the current ICT curriculum is too off-putting, too demotivating, too dull. It doesn’t stretch pupils enough or allow enough opportunities for innovation and experimentation.

The Department for Education is opening a consultation on withdrawing the existing National Curriculum Programme of Study for ICT from September this year. ICT will remain compulsory at all key stages. The existing Programme of Study will remain on the web for reference. But no English school will be forced to follow it any more. From this September, all schools will be free to use the amazing resources that already exist on the web.

We want to see universities and businesses create new high quality Computer Science GCSEs, and develop curricula encouraging schools to make use of the brilliant Computer Science content available on the web.

We’re encouraging rigorous Computer Science courses. Computer Science is a rigorous, fascinating and intellectually challenging subject. If new Computer Science GCSEs are developed that meet high standards of intellectual depth and practical value, we will certainly consider including Computer Science as an option in the English Baccalaureate.

Advances in technology should also make us think about the broader school curriculum in a new way. In an open-source world, why should we accept that a curriculum is a single, static document? We need to consider how we can take a wiki, collaborative approach to developing new curriculum materials; using technological platforms to their full advantage in creating something far more sophisticated than anything previously available.

We want a modern education system which exploits the best that technology can offer to schools, teachers and pupils, where schools use technology in imaginative and effective ways to build the knowledge, understanding and skills that young people need for the future and where we can adapt to and welcome every new technological advance that comes along to change everything, all over again, in ways we never expected.

A lot of the points made here are very valid although many have been made before (I heard Estelle Morris use the Victorian teacher metaphor in 2003). 

There are three arguments. First, ICT can be used to enhance learning across the school curriculum. This is true although it must be applied with caution. Some of the examples quoted such as Khan Academy are ways of presenting knowledge. Learning is more than watching videos even if those videas were rather better than the general standard today. But it is certainly true that ICT can supplement and in some cases replace the 'knowledge presentation' function of a teacher. Of much greater interest are the new developments in ICT which enable pupils to experiment and explore ideas, and discuss between themselves, and create artefacts based on their understanding.

Second, ICT can be used to develop learner analytics which offer the potential for a much better assessment than at present; this in turn could feed into more personalised learning. There is astill a lot of work to be done before this becomes reality but the future could be very exciting.

Third, we do need to teach Computing to appropriate pupils. But not to everyone. The situation is a little like Science (or Maths, or English). Everyone needs a basic grounding in these subjects to enable them to become useful, happy and successful citizens in the world of the future. Only a few need the advanced training to become Scientists, writers, mathematicians or computer programmers.

There is also a worry about whether we will have teachers with the skills necessary to teach Computing. In 2010 across the whole of England and Wales just 3 trainee teachers were Computer Science graduates. The current downgrading of teacher status through an imposed pay freeze and worsened pensions will not aid recruitment.

Nevertheless, the curriculum has to change. Ofsted surveyed the teaching of ICT in UK schools over the three years of 2008-2011.They found that:

• Primary schools were better than secondary schools.
• Teachers struggled when the demands of the subject became difficult.
• "Few ... schools assessed systematically the impact of ICT on pupils’ achievements although many headteachers were convinced that their investment in ICT was making a key contribution to improving outcomes."
• Nearly half of secondaries failed to deliver the full ICT core to all students at KS4.

They recommended that:

·                     The DfE reviews equivalences in performance measures for schools between vocational coursework-assessed qualifications and more traditional GCSEs and GCEs. 

·                     All schools should: 

o                                            Improve AfL in ICT

o                                            Ensure the ICT entitlement is delivered

o                                            Make ICT teaching engaging and relevant

o                                            Provide CPD to improve teachers' confidence and expertise and enable them to teach ICT effectively

o                                            Make e-safety a priority

·                     Secondary schools in particular should:

o                                            Provide a range of KS4 ICT courses mapped to pupils' needs

o                                            Encourage girls to study ICT at KS4

o                                            Ensure ICT across the curriculum

What made ICT teaching outstanding in Primaries: 

·                     Well-judged pace "sustained throughout the lesson"; good pupil engagement; brisk transitions

·                     Teachers with excellent subject knowledge

·                     Consistent attention to pupils’ understanding; use of key words

·                     Thorough and detailed   planning, "with particular attention to meeting the different requirements of individual pupils"; "learning activities were expertly differentiated"

·                     A good variety of activities and a range of equipment and resources available 

·                     Clear and explicit learning objectives negotiated with pupils

·                     Safe working  with all resources

·                     Excellent use of IWBs

·                     Opportunities "to experience ‘real world’ ICT use outside school"

·                     Pupils encouraged to be independent

·                     "Questions were used skilfully to challenge and extend learning" and " to deepen understanding, rather than just to check knowledge"

·                     "Formative assessment, through a variety of means, was an integral part of each lesson and [well-structured] self- and peer-assessment were actively promoted"; "feedback, frequent marking and praise linked into planning the next lesson"; pupils "were clear about their own current level and what they needed to do to improve"

·                     Explicit links with other subjects especially literacy and numeracy.

If we are going to replace ICT with Computing then what should we teach? The Computing at School Working Group have produced a report called Computing: a Curriculum for Schools. They make the point that “Computing and ICT are complementary, but they are not the same …. Computing is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” Nevertheless, they believe that “in a world suffused by computation, every school-leaver should have an understanding of computing.”

The key concepts of Computing are:

Ø      Languages, machines, and computation

Ø      Data and representation

Ø      Communication and coordination

Ø      Abstraction and design

Ø      The wider context of computers.

The key processes are modelling, decomposing and generalising; and programming (including writing programs and testing and debugging them). They argue that students should know about algorithms; programs; data; computers; and communication and the internet. The report levels the curriculum describing targets for both KS2 and KS4.

This is a useful report from an influential group who have been approved by both Microsoft and Google.