TIME between TIMES

: the joy of educating during a time of rapid technological change.

- compiled by Jonathan Nalder, http://uLearning.edublogs.org, jnxyz@mac.com, @jnxyz

- Wordle.net Word cloud of responses recieved to the statement below.

Which educator with even a vague interest in keeping pedagogy up to date hasn’t shaken
their head when overhearing comments like these in staffrooms or education gatherings:

“I have a school provided laptop, but it just sits in my cupboard.”

“Our network is always down so I’ve just given up trying.”

“All mobile phones in schools should be banned.”

“I’m just a digital immigrant, so can’t be expected to learn that!”

“I’m retiring in 5 years, so I’m not going bother with technology.”

“You’re the guru, you do it!”

At my own large primary school with over 65 teaching staff, I sadly know of several for
which the first comment holds true. Anyone reading this could probably similarly pick out
the ones they have been exposed to. Day after day, and year after year of being an
advocate for transformational learning in the face of these kinds of attitudes can have a
pretty disheartening effect. Thank goodness that one of the benefits of the technology that
so many educators still shun is that we can now access other colleagues via Facebook
and Twitter who feel the same, but just as what is still most needed across nearly all
Education sectors is not necessarily more money, but a total mindset change, so can we
who are charged with leading change benefit from turning around our thinking.

The Digital revolution is a fast moving beast. Change is now a constant, not a once every
now and then event. Mobile, wireless and cloud computing developments are leading very
quickly towards a world of ubiquitous, or ‘everyware’ computing. Its no secret that
Education has been slow to respond to rise of these technologies. In fact, a 2003 report
into the ICT-intensiveness of 55 industries found that Education ranked … last. While its
easy to get down about such a result, as well as the responses that many teachers still
give today when invited to incorporate digital pedagogies into their students learning, there
are plenty of great examples where educators have responded in wonderful ways to the
digital revolution. I encourage you to seek them out, perhaps by visiting the sites of the
distinguished educators you’ll find below who have responded to this:

Statement:
This is the time between times for educators working with technology. Before mobile,
ubiquitous and everyware computing become the invisible norm, but after a time when
educators could sit back and wait for the digital revolution to pass on by. As slow as some
in education have been to respond to rapid technological change, this is however the most
exciting and dynamic time to be an educator of the educators because ...

George Siemens, Canada.

Founder of ‘Connectivism’, Associate Director with the Learning Technologies
Centre at University of Manitoba.
www.elearnspace.org
“I believe that we are seeing, in educational technology, a rare convergence of
technological transformation and ideological development. Twin trends of this sort are
infrequent, last occurring with the industrial revolution when (rudimentary) concepts of
democracy compounded the trends of industrialization. In education, the last century has
provided growing consensus of learning as a social and participative process. While not
always ideologically aligned, thinkers like Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, Bandura, Bruner,
Engestrom, Wenger, Lave, Pea, and others have emphasized the distributed, social, and
multi-faceted dimensions of learning.
The last several decades has also produced an increase in technologies that enable
participants to engage with information in a manner not seen in history. The rise of social
networking services, participative web, and growth in mobile technologies and broadband
access, provides a compelling argument for change. When the technological movement
combines with the ideological shift in learning theory, the impact on education may be
transformative. The future of education will be shaped by those who are able to
anticipate and understand the impact of the dual forces of social learning and
participative technology”.

Tony Vincent, USA.

Former teacher, now trainer and education consultant.
www.learninginhand.com
“What I love even more than teaching is learning. And in the changing digital and social
landscape, I get to learn constantly and reinforce my learning by sharing it with others”.

Dr Tony Karrer, USA.

CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, a software, web and eLearning development firm.
http://elearningtech.blogspot.com
“My only real formal learning on the metacognitive methods and tools that are the heart of
the value I bring as a knowledge worker was by educators. But I learned in an era of card
catalogs, microfiche readers, notes on paper. There were no laptops or mobile
devices; no instant access to trillions of web pages; no networks of millions of people; nor
free access to thousands of new tools. Educators today are in the midst of one of the
most interesting transformations where individual knowledge becomes devalued
but the ability to teach new metacognitive tools and methods is more important than
ever”.

Toni Twiss, NZ.

Former teacher, now a director of eLearning for secondary schools and a lecturer at
Waikato University.
http://tonitwiss.com
“Of the opportunity we have to remind ourselves of and rekindle our passion for learning
within a truly authentic context. We are forming our own new way forward, often through
experimentation, and along the way are experiencing the feelings of satisfaction when
something new is learned or achieved. I think as teachers it is also a timely reminder
of what it feels like to be a learner and perhaps at times a struggling learner. We are
put in the shoes of the very students we teach as we explore and experiment with the
potential of new technologies and perhaps most importantly reconstruct and refresh
understanding of our own pedagogy and practice rather than just doing what we have
always done.

We are developing teaching methods to allow our students to be successful contributors to

the world that they will be part of when they leave school. It is exciting because by the
choices we as teachers are making about what and how we choose to teach, we are
helping to define the values and skills that we see as being key to the future”.

Shane Roberts, Australia.

Secondary HPE teacher, and Advanced Pedagogical Licence holder.
http://shanetechteach.edublogs.org
“The change in others that can be realised and witnessed is immense. This could be a
time considered for preparation for anywhere, anytime learning and as such the
phenomenon of educators learning from each other is a rising river. Innovators and early
adopters can educate through means other than direct tuition which is impacting on the
teaching and learning methodologies and practices experienced by today’s students. The
range of devices available is also transforming ideas about teaching and learning, and the
processes that distribute this teaching and learning.
Change is an exciting process, for me in particular as it means trial and experimentation
are welcomed. Less effective or productive practices can be discovered, trialled and
reported on without fear of being labeled incompetent – as long as learning is
achieved and demonstrated. Accompanying this is the ability to gain feedback from a
worldwide audience, leading to inspiration within one’s own practice.

Mathew Nehrling, USA.

Sr. Instructional Designer with a Fortune 500 telecommunications company.
http://mlearningworld.blogspot.com
“During a transition period like this, many minds are not in the box to solutions and ideas.
Everyone is looking for how to integrate the new innovation (be it idea or technology).
After an innovation is standard, creativity is often stifled because people have the baseline
as to 'how it is'.
During the economic downturn as much off the world is having, it forces people to think
about real, practical application. It sharpens the focus like a sword. How can you take the
innovation and produce the greatest ROI? It takes all the creative ideas and helps one
hone in on what is practical.
We are at a point now where we have a perfect combination of the two. There is a
technological revolution in anywhere, anytime computing, but with economic
downturns, you have to focus on real, productive solutions, thus more energy is
spent on what can be produced and static (data asphyxiation) is pushed aside”.

Emma Heffernan, Australia.

Manager Discovery Programs, eLearning Branch, Education Queensland.
“For the first time in history, students and teachers are consciously playing the same role;
learners. Technology is a great democratiser of education. It is no longer expected that
educators hold the knowledge to impart to their learners, rather that we are all
learners. The role of the educator is evolving to one of true facilitator, guide and model
learner. We have unprecedented access to people, information, resources and wisdom,
and as we develop new ways of learning and working we are reshaping our view of
education and schooling”.

Professor Stephen Heppell, U.K.

Founder, Ultralab and Think.com
www.heppell.net
“Because we are in a world recession. Every past recession has seen a step change for
New Learning as Keynesian investment boost the new, rejects the old and favours public
service; because we have moved from the flat start of technological progression's
exponential curve to the steep part. Where before we had good time to reflect on small
changes, now we have little time to reflect on momentous changes - that means
there is no time for a top-down quality control model and we must rely on people,
practitioners and communities for judgement for what might be effective;
Because technology destroys cartels: music, automobiles, banks and more. Those who
sought to build value from vast scale and barriers to new competition see their walls
crumble as a people's century erodes their foundations. It was people that called time on
recorded music and rediscovered live performance; it's small local mutual banks that have
survived. Learning is about people, not corporations.
Because all the old certainties of a last century world of factory schools with its formulaic
rigours of "met before" learning have palpably failed to meet the needs of a world full of
surprises and the unexpected. It's the death of factory education and, as I have often
reflected before, the dawn of learning..

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And the winner is … ? Based on all the above responses, and a word count/analysis,
LEARNING is now king, and being a learner the key to educators finding a place in 21st
Century learning. Many thanks to all the respondents for their key contributions.

- Jonathan Nalder, August 2009.