Education expert and Director of Ideas Lab, Bruce Dixon, was at the New England Institute of TAFE recently, speaking to local school and TAFE educators about the benefits of embracing technology and utilising the NBN to deliver ‘21st century learning’ in the classroom.
Bruce Dixon, who has advised schools, Education Departments, Ministries of Education, Microsoft, Apple and Bertelsmann on teaching and technology in education, believes the biggest challenge so far for teachers has been the lack of access to the new technologies.
“In the past, we have been completely unreasonable in what we have expected of our teachers and a lot of people have been unreasonably critical of teachers’ use of technology when they haven’t had access to it,” said Mr Dixon.
“In recent times we have seen the distribution of laptops through the Digital Education Revolution Program.
“Universal access to the internet in Australia is going to become a reality and it is going to be through high speed broadband, which is unprecedented anywhere else in the world in the way we are doing it here.”
Mr Dixon describes teachers and students in first release NBN sites like Armidale as ‘explorers’ who will map out innovative uses of technology for learning.
“We are so fortunate to be sitting here looking at what these technologies will offer our teachers and students,” said Mr Dixon.
“The chance to work through Ideas Lab and NBN Co with local teachers in Armidale is a great project to be involved in.
“A lot of people will be excited about the work that is happening here.”
One concern that local teachers raised with Mr Dixon was the learning outcomes that students needed to achieve through the different curricula, which they felt was hard to achieve through the use of emerging technologies.
“We have to re-think the role of curriculum and re-imagine what it should be,” said Mr Dixon.
“The notion of believing that we can predefine what we actually want kids to have learnt, at all levels, is probably going to be challenged in this new technology-rich environment.
“At lot of what we have looked upon as formal requirements of education are necessary, but not sufficient.
“To be a participant in the 21st century, you need to be able to do so much more than that.”
NBN Co recently launched the ‘For Schools’ section of the website. It aims to help students and teachers understand what the National Broadband Network (NBN) is all about and how it will potentially impact their lives. The website is www.nbnco.com.au/schools.
Story: Jo Harrison
