Copyright Australian Council for Educational .

Research. Not to be reproduced in any form or by

any means without the permission ofthe publishers.

r;
;

TEACHERS NEED TO KNOW HOW NEW, AND OLD, TECHNOLOGIES CAN BE USED SUCCESSFULLY
IN THEIR SUBJECT AREAS, WITH SPECIFIC APPLICATION TO THEIR OWN CLASSROOM SITUATIONS,
IF THEY ARE TO CREATE THE 21ST-CENTURY LEARNERS THAT THE NEW CURRICULUM ASPIRES TO
PRODUCE. ANNABEL ASTBURY EXPLAINS.

We all know that students in roday's class~

room are different from those in the das$~
room a mere 10 year? ago, and that our various approaches to' reach(ng to ensure that
students become, successf~1 independent
learners have likewise ch~~g~d.
Both points were recognised by the Ministerial Council on Edtlcatio~, Employment,
Training and Youth Affairs, in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals
for Young Australians, which stressed that
sllccessfullearners are not only literate and
numerate but also 'productive users of technology, especially information and communication technology (lCT), as a foundation
for success in all learning areas.'

24

TEACHER AUGUST 2009

This is of course an admirable goal, but

there's a problem, and the problem is this:
the goal simply cannot be realised without
specific, subject-oriented training for teachers at all stages of their careers.
In JUSt 20 months, a national curriculum for the subject areas of English, Mathematics, Science and History will be implemented in all Australian schools. In May,
the National Curriculum Board (NCB) published a series of papers that reported on
feedback regarding the framing papers for
each of those subjects that were published
at the end of 2008.
The NCB's The Shape of the Australian
Curriculum promises that, 'A curriculum for

the 21st Century will reflect an understanding and acknowledgment of the changing
nature of young people as learners, and the
challenges and demands that will continue
to shape their learning in the future.'
In principle, this acknowledgement is to
be applauded; however, it's worthless if it is
not put into practice. It's tim~.to act now if
teachers are going to create the 21st-century
learners that the new curriculum aspires to
produce.
To demonstrate the nature of today's
learner, let me tell you a story. One Sunday,
earlier this year, I called my seven-yearold son over to have a look at a spaceship
launch that was being streamed live on the

internet from the NASA website. I was awestruck. I could just log in and see it. My son,
though, didn't share the same enthusiasm.
To him it was a fait accompli. His reaction
was the non-verbal equivalent to 'Well, why
wouldn't they stream it here?'
Fast forward three months. In April,
the ABC launched Gallipoli: The first day,
one of the most amazing, digitally superb,
masterfully crafted resource rich sites on
the Gallipoli landing. To me, it was proof
that life could be breathed into stories that
I thought I knew so well. My son and I had
been discussing Gallipoli, reading books
and sharing stories so I thought he'd be
more than excited.
I showed him the site, highlighting the
video and audio spectacular, thinking he

would be pushing me out the way to have

a turn, but again, no. His response: 'Is it a
game? What can I do on it?' To him, this
feat of technological design was just another
medium, yet the act ,of 'watching' it, even
if he could determine which information
he saw, was underwhelming, still a passive
activity without guess work for him, with
no puzzle to solve, no opinion to offer. The
level of interactivity was the same, in his
eyes, as switching on the television to watch
a movie.
I showed the site to my mother, in her
60s, who couldn't believe 'how wonderful'
the site was and 'how much better for the
kids' it was than looking at a textbook. For
my mother, the site was interactive because
you could watch, listen and be amazed.

The problem with making motherhood

statements about education littered with
phrases that students should be, among
other things, 'global citizens,' 'futures
focused' or '21st-century learners' is that
they assume that the teachers have the Sl1P~
port, knowledge and skills to deliver these
worthy outcomes. Teachers simply must
have the support to implement and execute
these programs effectively, otherwise it'll be
a case of 'same old, same old.'
It's no longer feasible to look at developing teachers' reT skills exclusive of their current field of subject expertise. Teachers need
to know how new, and old, technologies can
be Llsed successfully in their subject areas.
Without specific application to their
own classroom situations, in their subjects,

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

25

Without specific
application to their own
classroom situations, in
their subjects, training
teachers in 'the use of
leT' is fruitless.

26

TEACHER AUGUST 2009

training teachers in 'the use of leT' is fruit~

less, especially when there is such a gap
between what we teachers and our students
understand by the term 'interactive:
Any endeavours to 'teach the teachers'
about the way technology can be used in
the classroom are going to be mOre success~
fal if they occur in the context with which
teachers are familiar - and that's even more
crucial for those teachers, regardless of their
generation, who are reluctant or fearful of
the use of leT in theif classroom.
Not every leT tool is useful in enhancing learning in a particular subject area.
Equally, not every teacher is really 'using
ICT' if they are simply providing preprepared resources that may not always fit
their own classroom practice or encourage
the higher-order skills and practices that are
associated with each discipline.
It's no longer acceptable to say you've
'connected' students simply because you've
had them look up a website.
We teachers need to be prepared to apply
lCT in the context of our subject expertise
not in isolation and need to understand how
the particular lCT tool enhances or has an
impact on the skills and understanding
associated with the discipline.
This is not to say that we in the profession are living in some sort of digital darkage and therefore failing 'our children.'
There are many 'connected' teachers out
there. I know, because I work with them,
but I'm also aware that the majority of us
have neither time nor support to realise our
professional development in this area.
The problem doesn't lie in the fact that
we don't know how to 'use' the technology; it's that many of us don't know how to
embed or incorporate the technology into
our current practice. This has nothing to do
with age, and has everything to do with how
professional development is designed.
Teachers who are not digitally literate
have the initial challenge of processing the
skills that are being taught and if those skills
aren't taught in a context with which they're
familiar, they'll then have the added trouble
of trying to apply it to their classroom.

Equally, you may have a teacher who is

technologically savvy, but struggles with the
subject knowledge or pedagogical understanding of the subject area. This reality is
worse because often, in schools, teachers
teach outside of their subject areas - and
when they're taught how to apply the ICT
knowledge to that new subject, the skills
become peripheral to rather than integrated
into the curriculum.
There are many reasons for this - mostly
to do with infrastructure and time but if
it's mandatory that we embed the use of
digital technologies into our subject areas,
it should be mandatory that we have the
opportunity to learn how to do this. Withom
the support and infrastructure to ensure the
success of a federal initiative, teachers will
simply not be equipped for what is poten~
tiallya very exciting future for education in
Ausrralia. 0

Annabel Astbury is the Executive

Director of the History Teachers'
Association of Victoria.
LINKS:

More on the History Teachers'

Association of Victoria is available at
www.htav.asn.au
Gallipoli: The first day is available at
www.abc.net.au/innovation/gallipoli
REFERENCES

Ministerial Council on Education,

Employment, Training and Youth
Affairs. (2008). Melbourne Declaration
on Educational Goals for Young
Australians. Available at www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_
Declaration_on_the_Educational_
Goals-for_Yaung_Australians. pdf
Retrieved 26 May, 2009.
National Curriculum Board.
(2009). The Shape of the Australian
Curriculum. Available at www.ncb.
org.aulverveCresourcesIShape_of-the_
Australian_Curriculum.pdf Retrieved
26 May, 2009.