Key in teaching teachers

By Adam Gifford

The key to successful integration of computers into the classroom is to teach the teachers.

That's a lesson too many schools miss out on - and then wonder why their expensive new equipment doesn't seem to be having any measurable results, says computer executive Rem Jackson.

Mr Jackson is the vice-president in charge of professional development for Classroom Connect, a Silicon Valley-based computer education service provider.

"The other common mistake is to look at technology as a hurdle to be overcome when it is simply a tool," said Mr Jackson, who was in Auckland to speak at the Compaq "Pushing the Edge" IT in education conference last week.

"Keep the focus on the learning and let the technology facilitate the learning."

The company is this week launching a staff-development package delivered over the Internet, a demonstration on line at cu.classroom.com.

Mr Jackson said the Internet was changing education in the same way that it was changing industries like travel, insurance and finance.

"But those of us working with teachers can't just go into a school and say, 'Guess what? We're going to totally change the way you teach!' because the resistance level is enormous.

"We need to go in and inspire them through modelling and videos and Web-delivered staff development. If you do that you can develop a community where the teachers can see what can happen."

The United States Bureau of Labour estimated that 70 per cent of all jobs now required some minimal understanding of how to operate a computer, he said.

"By 2010 all jobs will require significant computer skills and 80 per cent of those jobs have not yet been created.

"The old ways of doing things aren't going to suffice. Teachers, who are themselves educated ... in the 20th century, are now preparing the digital citizens of the next century in their classrooms."

Mr Jackson said the jobs today's students would go into were likely to involve distributed work, "where you work with people around the world just as easily as you work with folks in the office now."

Two skills would be crucial. "Students need to be information literate. It's no longer the model where students are empty vessels into which we pour content and they leave with everything they need to know.

"Instead, they don't know what they need to know but they know how to find it and how to evaluate it for its veracity.

"Secondly, they need to develop the skills of being life-long learners.

"When you wake up in the morning you should be asking yourself, 'What do I need to learn today so I can remain a useful, contributing and competitive member of society?'

"On a practical level, teachers need to become familiar with the types of computers and types of software being installed in their classrooms."

Classroom Connect started in 1994 in Pennsylvania publishing a newsletter.

The newsletter now has 45,000 subscribers, and the company also produces books, videos, training guides, seminars and conferences.

Mr Jackson said most of its services were being moved to the Internet, with www.classroom.com as a hub for people to use.