Mr Gove is finally turned on to technology
He admits to being ‘behind the curve’ on its role in schools
Michael Gove signalled a significant shift in approach last week when he admitted that he and his ministerial colleagues were guilty of being “behind the curve” when it came to technology in schools.
In a speech that stood at odds with his 18 months in office, the education secretary even stated that his department was working up new policy on using technology in the classroom, which is expected to be announced at next month’s education technology fair, BETT, held in Olympia, west London.
His comments came on the same day that schools minister Nick Gibb announced he would be launching a review of the use of calculators in the classroom.
Speaking at the Schools Network’s annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Gove said that although the workplace has changed through technology, making it almost unrecognisable compared with 100 years ago, schools have remained the same.
“While the pupils may be better fed and the teachers better dressed, apart from there being a whiteboard not a blackboard and the classroom being set up differently, much of the teaching and learning would seem uncannily similar,” Mr Gove said.
“I think, given how much technology has changed other workplaces we, and in particular the Department for Education and its ministers, have been behind the curve in appreciating what we need to do,” he added.
Mr Gove also tried to dispel fears that the Coalition’s reforms to the curriculum and assessment would take the country’s education system “back to the 1950s”.
“(We are accused) of caring more about Tennyson than technology, Ibsen than iTunes, more about Kubla Khan than the Khan Academy,” he said. “But I don’t see that there is any tension between demanding the highest standards of our students and insisting they have access to this rich cultural intellect, while reflecting on how technology can make that more real.”
Mr Gove even claimed computer games, while often viewed as a distraction by parents, can often be “the best ways of facilitating learning”.
His comments were met with surprise by the audience of mainly academy and specialist school heads, with one onlooker tweeting: “Feeling I am part of history - never heard Gove discuss technology and education in this way.”
David Mitchell, acting headteacher at Heathfield Primary School in Bolton, said the education secretary’s focus on technology came as a “shock”.
“It is long overdue but very welcome,” Mr Mitchell said. “What we now need from the Government after this message is a ‘vision’. From my experience, it has been up to the school to seek good practice and implement approaches to using technology. What schools now need is consistency, a vision and resources.”
But according to Donna Barber, director at Essa Academy, also in Bolton, it is unreasonable to assume ministers should be at the forefront of using technology in the classroom when most teachers do not know how to use it.
“I am not surprised they are coming round (to technology), but many teachers don’t know how to use it so why should (politicians) be ahead of teachers when it comes to such knowledge?” she said.
Essa Academy was the first school in the country to give each of its students an iPod Touch and it has now forged a partnership with Apple, offering its pupils iPads and new MacBook Air laptops. Ministers visited the school less than two weeks ago and Ms Barber believes this “opened politicians’ eyes” to the potential of using technology in the classroom. And the school has the results to prove this potential.
“We have shown that ICT can be used implicitly in schools,” she said. “Previously, people were teaching ICT as an add-on and it has meant education is so far behind and only now are people are beginning to realise the potential.”
TOPICAL TWEETS
Perhaps he has changed his mind and will announce that each child will get an iPad rather than a King James Bible. #sensible idea
@issybryce10
Michael Gove building up to announcing new DfE technology policy at Bett 2012.
@bobharrisonset
@chickensaltash WOW WOW #gove talking about games-based learning! But DfE wants to stop children using calculators. #logicfail
@mikercameron
“The promise of new technology” - Mr Gove makes it seem as if nothing has yet happened with new technologies in schools!
@issybryce10
Feeling I am part of history - never heard Gove discuss technology and education in this way.
@chickensaltash.
Comment (6)
If he so strongly believes in technology is so important why did he cut Harnessing technology budget to give it to 'Free' Schools? Those very same 'Free' schools that are in such deprived areas such as Dereham in Norfolk and Cobham in Surrey!! Why is there no vision as David says, why is there no strategy? So many questions, no answers. Let's hope his idea of using technology is not about automation but innovation. I won't be holding my breath....
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14:49
9 December, 2011
davidkr
Mr Gove once again gets things wrong!
Yesterday, 8/12/11 Stephen Twigg MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, wrote to the Education Secretary, Michael Gove asking him to make an urgent statement to the House of Commons regarding the mismanagement of the converter academy funding programme.
The letter states: “The Government must ensure a fair funding system, and it appears that many converter academies may have been given the wrong amount. Schools are rightly entitled to additional funding to cover services when they convert, but just like the BSF announcement, this programme seems to have been mishandled.
“Unsurprisingly, far more academies converted than the 200 which ministers predicted, creating a double whammy blow to the DfE’s budget. The fact that 790 schools which converted in 2010-11 may be overpaid in 2011-12 as well is extremely concerning. This money will now be top-sliced from all education authorities, irrespective of how many of their schools have converted to academies.
“I request that you make a statement to Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity to explain why taxpayers’ money appears to have been squandered in this way.”
I'm a maths teacher older than Gove and I manage to stay on top of technology; the guy is a complete idiot & should be ignored. What is really worrying is that Nick Gibb announced he would be launching a review of the use of calculators in the classroom. This is worrying because this no-calcultor debate was lost by the anti-technology crowd 30 yeas ago & doesn't need fighting again!
The Telegraph has had a few anti-calculator stories for example: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8928396/Use-of-calculators-in-primary-schools-could-be-curbed.html
Elizabeth Truss, the Conservative MP for South West Norfolk, said: “We should ensure that schools equip children with the mathematical basics that allow them to succeed in life. We are in danger of producing a ‘Sat-Nav’ generation of students overly reliant on technology.”
The fact that GCSE maths has a non-calculator paper & A-level maths has a non-calculator while iGCSE allows calculators on all papers is ignored and covered by lies & half-truths.
Having 13 years without Tory rule I'd forgotten how much these people HATE teachers, HATE younge people and see themselves as our saviours on everything.
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16:49
9 December, 2011
Brooke Bond
I think Mr Gove is beginning to see the light? Mind you the House of Lords (Knight,Willis,Putnam) have done a good job.
It was 2008 when Merlin John first asked the question:
http://www.agent4change.net/policy/ict-provision/599-the-long-wait-the-tories-on-ict-and-learning.htmlthat
So three years and a rewrite of the speech mnutes before the schools network event is not too long?
Even the leading techno-sceptic academics like Larry Cuban(the real Stanford NOT SRI Mr Gove) have changed their view of technology?
http://www.agent4change.net/people/1351edit
Great credit to the perseverance of all those like Merlin John and all the others ,like Jim Knight, who have kept banging the drum on this issue.
The challenge now is how to build on this "epiphany" in a "schools know best" culture and to confont the mindset of schools minister Nick Gibb who doesn't believe calculators should be used in schools?
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20:44
9 December, 2011
bobharrison
Nick Gibb is not that bright and his thinking is very limited.
When I went for my first maths teaching post in 1982 I had to face an interview panel of governors; all white males with an average age of 75 and several with military titles like Capitain & Major. The head of maths warned me that I was going to be asked about my views on calculators in the classroom & (nudge,nudge, wink, wink) I should consider who I was talking to. I went in & lied through my teeth telling them calculator made your brain rot & couldn't possibly help develop 'proper' maths.........I got the job! Along with the head of maths I made sure that every kid in the school used calculators as much as possible and to my knowledge the governors had absolutely no idea of what was actually happening in the school or even the world.
Nick Gibbs views were retro & dated 30 years ago. It makes me REALLY worried that idiots like him get to decide what happens to childrens education in this country in the 21st century!
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12:19
11 December, 2011
Brooke Bond
Its not just ICT that he needs to realise is a "technology". The governement clearly dont talk to each other. On the one hand we have osbourne stating that design, innovation and manufacturing will drive the economy forward. On the other hand you have Gove wanting to remove Design and Technology from the curriculum along with ICT.
He still sees Design and Technology as an outdated subject, knocking up bird boxes with "thick kids".
In truth some of the design and maufacture students do in school is innovative. The use of CAD (Computer Aided Design) as a design tool is something which happens in industry all the time. Having public figures such as Sir james Dyson and other mutl national companies backing the call for Design and Technology to be included you would think that Gove would listen.
Sadly I think his blinkered view of education is going to set the UK's Design and manufacturing sector back 30/40 years.
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14:25
12 December, 2011
MArtymcq
If Goves blinkered view of education is going to set the UK's Design and manufacturing sector back 30/40 years then UK Design can join the rest of the education sector.
Gove is a man of one idea. The idea that what was good for him as a child many years ago is good for all children now. That is his vision; the thing that really drives him.
As a child he went to a private school with a very narrow curriculumn; hence the E-bac. His school staff-room, or senior common room, was full of Oxbridge-types who had never undergone a days teacher training in their lives; hence his current stance on initial teacher education. His school prided itself on being 'elite'; hence his love of teach first & his enthusiasm for anything 'elite'. And of course his elite-private-school didn't 'do' stuff like woodwork, metalwork, D&T or ICT, that was for the plebs; hence his attitude to vocational qualifications, D&T & ICT.
The man really does define the word: MORON.
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18:25
13 December, 2011
Brooke Bond