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Children, on-line learning and authentic teaching skills in primary education |
Reliability |
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Main Topics
More information ...
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Early in the study (2002) the issue of reliability arose with many teachers reporting that:
Further investigations in 2003, especially in interviews with class teachers, have revealed that this is a complex issue concerning much more than correct functioning of the technology. It is useful to consider the use of technology within teaching and learning practices.
What 'reliable' usually means In a general sense most teachers use the term reliability to mean that
Windows of opportunity Classroom learning is managed as a sequence of cumulative, often short, tasks. Thus any loss of opportunity can be disruptive and difficult to manage in the short-term and difficult to retrieve in the longer term. Students need to be purposefully engaged with their learning tasks almost continuously and thus classes tend to operate on the basis of very narrow windows of opportunity. Student engagement with learning tasks can be 'fragile' and particularly vulnerable to disruption. The time required to overcome a typical reliability problem tends to be greater than the duration of the window of opportunity involved.
Many Sources of Difficulty There are many sources of difficulty in relation to the teacher being able to rely on effective use of the ICT (in alphabetical order - not order of importance):
[Reliability matrix: this link provides an Excel spreadsheet that may be useful in analysing your current situation - any feedback on its usefulness or otherwise would be appreciated]
Compounding difficulties It is common for two or more of the above difficulties to occur simultaneously. This makes trouble shooting more difficult and hence increases the working knowledge required. Our 'Law of working knowledge' is that 'The working knowledge required is inversely proportional to the homogeneity and reliability of the systems in use.'
Matching technology Thus the issue of 'reliability' from the teachers' point of view is better understood as a matter of matching technology to purposes and practices of the users (eg, teachers and students,...). That is improving the reliability means improving the match between the technology and the practices in which it is used. There are several dimensions to this matching
So what to attend to? In most schools it appears that equipment gets less attention the further it is located from the servers. This means that problems with classroom PCs must be reported before being addressed. The problem is more significant for peripherals. Meaning of
reliability: technical, organizational AND professional Teachers and IT
personnel use the word 'reliability' in somewhat different ways. Perhaps for IT
personnel it means that the devices containing the technology are installed and
in good working condition. For teachers, 'reliability' relates directly to
their capacity make prompt and effective use of the devices. Inappropriate
assignment of authority and responsibility It is common practice for schools and their professional staff to defer to technical staff on most matters relating to technology. This is inappropriate and unfair to technical staff who are expected to achieve outcomes beyond their technical expertise. Collaboration
required Most of the above
difficulties involve technical, organisational and/or professional issues.
For example, software and hardware configuration may need to carried out by IT
personnel, but in an consistent organised way, in order to meet the requirements
of different users. This means that responsibility cannot be assigned solely to
IT personnel, nor to school management, not to the professionals. It needs
to be a collaborative ongoing
effort between all concerned !! Three levels of implementation The use of ICT in
teaching and learning requires implementation at three
levels all of which have an impact on ‘reliability’
Key success factors There are four key success
factors (in order of importance) that impact substantially on teacher
experience of ‘reliability’
The Future - a focus
on practices? Dealing with
'reliability' is best done as a on-going collaborative activity - it involves a
range of interactive practices (technical, organisational and professional).
Schools that have developed a community
of practice around reliability are getting much better value from
the their efforts and their use of ICT in the class programs. This issue is currently
under review. The focus is likely to move
Recommendations: it would appear that
at least within a class, then across a grade or school sector and preferably across the school, would be key strategies to increase the 'reliability of the technology' for teachers and students. |
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This site is maintained by Ivan
Webb phone 03 6324 3492 |
