In 2007, former Prime Minister Rudd implemented the ‘digital education revolution’. The scheme had ambitious aims including connecting all colleges to high speed broadband, a laptop for every child in years 9-12 in public colleges, new ICT research projects, teacher training and in-college technical support. At the time, Rudd told the Sydney Morning Herald, “There is now incontrovertible evidence that education should be understood as an economic investment”. Some parents may know children who received a laptop, but almost all of them will now have left college as the scheme was discontinued.
This post isn’t about politics or laptops. It is about why 2007 was an important year for technology, media and education.
Apple launched its ‘iPhone’ which was the genesis for revolution in portable computing, software design and distribution and mobility. The iPhone turned the mobile phone and computing business upside down, and then iPad was just as important a few years later. Few of our Stage 4 students remember a world before 3G and 4G, let alone not being able to stream videos onto personal screens or look up information. 2007 was ‘Year One’ for the, ‘I want, I click, I get’, information revolution.
In his budget response in May 2015, leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, again called for an education revolution. In his speech he said, ‘Coding is the literacy of the 21st century’. I’d argue it’s one literacy of the 21st century and also that at IFS we’re already taking up these challenges through our approach to technology in the classroom and while it’s always great to see federal and state investment, we know that children can’t afford to wait for politics to agree on exactly what the ‘right curriculum’ is, nor how to fund it.
Funding for the first ‘digital education revolution’ effectively ended with the arrival of the Abbott government. Most people didn’t notice its demise. But in its wake, they might have noticed how many colleges were introducing bring your own device (BYOD) – or providing technology to students through their own arrangements. Like many revolutions throughout history, they sometimes have a few goes at it before it really becomes a REVOLUTION.
One question remains. Are children being taught how to use technology, or is technology using them? This isn’t a new question and I’d have to point to Marshall McLuhan’s paper, “The Medium is the Message” to show how long we have been talking about this in society.
I think that away from the political speeches and rhetoric, most of our students have simply grown up with online media and mobile devices. The media no longer tries to create panic about the dangers of technology either. Instead, we are seeing useful resources being created by them – and using them to our advantage. For example, anyone can do an Hour of Code – and learn some basic programming in a fun way. The technology and media industries are creating some great resources, picking up on kids interest in playing and making blogs, photo-stories, games and videos.
The video at the top of this post is the one which kicked off our Stage 4 technology project this term. Our students not only learned some basics of ‘code’ but learned how to make a ‘retro arcade game’ for, (and using), their iPad. We didn’t need any external prompting to do this, we know that having a basic understanding of how to write code helps kids understand how software works.
In Stage 4 we are using a game development tool called Sploder. Here’s a tutorial which illustrates my point about using industry, (and personally created), resources to help kids learn. The real skills of the 21st century are wrapped up in learning how to find and use this kind of ‘help’ to improve knowledge and skills.
By the time our students games are completed, they will have searched, sifted and shared hundreds of videos and websites like this to help each other make better and better games – and that is a powerful literacy revolution for children that we could not imagine possible in 2007.
Perhaps ‘revolution’ was the right word. A Revoltion is, ‘a fundamental change in power or organisational structures’. If that structure is ‘information and access’ then it really is an amazing time for learning.
What an engaging way to teach coding to kids – I’m sure even adults would love to create their own arcade game! So glad IFS is embracing technology – it’s definitely the way of the future (actually, it’s here now) and kids will be at a distinct vocational disadvantage if they aren’t at the forefront of the new technology.