Stuff this week - Its all in the planning!
In September 2015 Australia's Chief Scientist released the STEM: Australia's Future Report which made the point that STEM education in our schools is "Too important to leave to chance". This is the crux of my view of STEM education in primary. There needs to be a better focus yet there is no gold standard model to follow therefore only through proper planning with defined and measurable outcomes will any change be successful.
Yet there are many examples of success and I believe these come down to an obvious degree of planning and a healthy scepticism that no one tech thing will lead to educational gold. Schools and parents have to end fixation on tech tools and focus on the outcome. What the outcome is will be the educational goals and instructional models that the school has identified as best fit for their students. There must be defined measurable goals which are sometimes referred to as SMART goals which means they are specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time-based. There are examples where principals and teachers talk about the importance of this, this link reports on a successful 1:1 laptop program.
I believe schools should form a working party to bring together the key stakeholders to define these goals. The group members would be the forward leaning tech-savvy teachers, the curriculum experts, the gifted and talented team, those responsible for any 1:1 device programs, any related extra-curricular activities and people who have skills that could help with managing a transformational project. Breaking down the silos between different programs in a school to develop a cohesive plan to support all learners should be the main objective.
There are so many options which are now available to schools due to the explosion of technology in society. It is necessary therefore to do quite a bit of research into what is available and discuss what can be achieved. Having a discussion centred around "We are doing X which is great but if we could do Y it would be so much better". Then look into how the school could do Y. At all times it is important to not get carried away with the hype around any one product and stay focused on the goals. There has been research done into how organisations get caught up in the excitement of new technology and so it is useful to understand and continually reflect on the Gartner Hype Cycle. There are emerging organisations which can help such as Edusrge's Concierge Service.
Next week I will showcase some exemplar schools and how they have done the detailed planning that should bring success.
What do you think? Is your school developing SMART goals and doing detailed planning or are they on the hype cycle and rushing headlong and potentially wasting valuable resources?
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You are probably thinking "WOW I don't know how to do any of that!" which is also what a lot of the teachers are saying which is why it is so important that schools upskill them to be able to deliver these new subjects properly. Knowing how to blind carbon copy (BCC) someone in an email is not digital technologies, creating a game of catch the banana is!
