One of the joys of being an ICT evangelical is seeing the gradual conversion from technophobe, to dependent. Not so long ago, when talking to teachers about ICT, I would encounter a rolling of the eyes and a holding up of the hands with the defence, "Computers? I know nothing about computers!" What they wanted to add was that they didn't want to know either. Nowadays I rarely meet these luddites born of fear and overburdening. (Although both conditions are still present.)

Indeed, I still hear that cry, but now it has taken on a desperate plea. "Computers? I don’t know anything about computers!" and the emphasis is that they really do want to know. This sense of need and acceptance of change is due to the growing presence of technology in society and the heightened emphasis that has been placed on it by the current political agenda. Teachers are worried they are being left behind, and unlike the Literacy and Numeracy strategies, many are prepared to give up their own time to take advantage of the NOF training. (In the innocent hope that in a few short sessions they can know everything about computers.)

However, gradually, as teachers find a pragmatic use for the beast in the corner, they begin to see how useful it can be. Later on, the tell tale sign that the transition of a new convert is complete occurs when you get called over for an emergency. "You've got to fix it, I can't work without my computer!" This is music to an evangelical's ears and although there is a positive side to it, there is a word of caution as well. Usually the teacher is just referring to their personal use and planning, and often, this is where the evangelism finishes. Valid though personal skills are, I would prefer that the cry was made in respect of class work and the children.

And herein a problem lies….

At a conference over a year ago now, the minister for the DfEE (as it was then) was speaking and I was glad to see they were asking the right sort of questions:

How do we measure a child's ICT capability?

How do we prove that ICT improves standards?

How do we improve teachers’ capability?

The question that was missing was:

How do we get teachers to teach ICT?

It wasn't asked because the DfEE’s perception was that children already knew about computers and the internet. It was the teachers who were lagging behind and needed their personal skills brought in line with the children. Although there is still a glimmer of truth in this, it is the sort of crude caricature that you would expect to find in the daily tabloids. Yes, many teachers are crying out to be trained in personal skills, but there is more to the ICT malaise in education than that. Are all children budding programmers and computer experts at home?

That this perception had actually been fostered by advisers within education is to our shame. Children do not 'know' about computers and the internet, they are just not intimidated by technology. Confidence and knowledge are not the same thing. They are bedfellows, but just because children 'like' computers and think they are ‘cool’ does not mean they understand them. It is simply a good basis to begin teaching them from.

What generally happened in our primary school is that while children were motivated by the computer, the teacher was unsure about it and so allowed them undirected access. There they learnt sporadically and unguided and the teacher became ever more distant from the process. "The children know more about it than I do!" was the boast of such a class. Sadly, if you stepped back and looked at the situation, what a terrible thing for a teacher to say! Imagine saying that in Numeracy or Literacy - how can it be acceptable in ICT?

But you could see why such a belief was and maybe still is held by ministers. I can just see them now, holding up their hands and rolling their eyes saying... "Computers, I know nothing about computers! Why these young people of today can whip up a web page in no time!"

Worse still is that some advisers within education also seem to believe it. "You don't need to teach emphasis to year 3, they just know it." This was said to me fairly recently by a consultant in a discussion group at a conference and I was aghast at how weak their basis for this belief was. Maybe part of the reason is that many draw their experience solely from secondary. Ask any year 3 class that question and you'll be lucky to get 3 hands respond. 50% or 60% may have computers at home but they do not 'know' the ICT syllabus. They may well play with word processing or paint programs in their room but they rarely, if ever, learn about data handling or control. Having a computer in your house does not mean you know how to use it. Just ask many teachers.

The answer being offered us is... "More access! More equipment! More time on ICT!" This of course helps enormously, but there seems to be one important aspect left out of the equation. The answer? Teach them, and teach them well. The solution is about good teaching of a subject, not just a more frequent immersion in a nebulous experience that can't be measured.

And it is not good enough to merely raise a teacher's personal skills for planning and worksheet production and then expect them to know how to teach ICT at a child's level. This usually leads to lessons about techniques that the adult has just learnt for themselves, usually on MS Office which is often inappropriate, or the lesson merely deals with which button to press. Helping children understand the concepts behind the functions, or the skill of when to apply them is not a feature of these lessons, just the ‘how’.

The absence of pedagogical rigour is surely the reason why so many year 9 children are still pressing space on the keyboard to center their text and why so few choose to take GCSE computing, despite apparently, being the internet generation. Knowing how to download MP3s and use a chat line does not mean they have no need of guidance. How many of them realise the difference in Yahoo and Alta Vista with regard to the search engine method? How many know how to validate the information they have obtained?

Now according to some, we needn’t worry about ICT, in fact it doesn’t even need to be a subject anymore. Children will just absorb it like they do with language as part of growing up. They will be immersed in ICT all the time, they will ‘know’ how to use it for their own ends from practical experience and exposure.

Makes you wonder why the Government thought a Literacy hour was needed doesn’t it? (not to mention a Numeracy.) Oh yes, I remember, something about standards wasn’t it. Of course it does solve the problem in one way. If ICT isn’t a subject then you don’t have to teach it, therefore you can’t measure it and you can’t be held accountable. However ICT is a subject, and if we concentrated on teaching it, we could measure it etc… and so many of those questions from the DfES would have an answer.

The danger of such an optimistic vision of self taught learners is that, when many children leave school, despite being inundated with learning centres or suites of computers, they will be the ones reflecting "Computers? I learnt nothing about computers..."

Doris Chow
ICT Co-ordinator,
Greenwich LEA