ICT Intent

There is an article over on the BBC’s Click site about what it is like one year on in Microsoft’s school in West Philadelphia.

There is hardly a book in sight.

Every student is issued a laptop and not much else to complete their studies. Homework projects are e-mailed to all the students, and their parents.

Every digital mark made on the board is downloadable to the family home.

There is another description about using video to improve achievement in ‘gym’.  What I find interesting, especially in comparison to the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme here in the UK, is the apparent scaling back of ambition. 

The examples given (an it is only one article) are not ‘transformative’ in the ways often described those driving ICT in BSF.  Rather, they are automating existing processes.

There is an accompanying interview with Bill Gates. In it he describes the future as being 5 to 10 years. A future in which every child has some sort of portable device (laptop/tablet), an online curriculum that is ‘customisable’ by the teacher (where’s the learner?), and an online portal for parents to see grades and attendance therefore being part of the loop. Again automating not transforming.

I think Microsoft/ Gates could be being very pragmatic here.  All of the things described are already being done and I know schools already doing it. However, they are not widespread and not necessarily being done well. Hence, they represent areas in which visible progress can be seen to be made soon. They are also things that pupils and parents seem to value in the present and short-term.

Further on in the clip, in the context of more disadvantaged children, Gates cites the network, the curriculum and teacher training as being harder nuts to crack than the provision of kit ($100 laptops etc). I.e, cultural aspects of the school: the environment/context in which the school exists; the stuff we think it is important to learn and how we measure it; and how the work-force engages with learning will be hardest part of any transformation.

I agree that having a shorter-term vision that consolidates what is best current practice as opposed to starting with a clean sheet of paper might be a more pragmatic way forward. I also think it is a way of minimising risk for private investors in state education.

However, we still need an eye on the longer term and we still need to look at what we need to do differently.  Especially as so many children are falling through the net. Automating the system could make us more efficient at failing some children.