When integrating ICT into the curriculum,  special attention must be given to the teachers in the school. There are those who will be early adopters, those who are fairly conversant with ICT use but choose a wait-and-see approach, and those who are not familiar with ICT and are probably worried about its use in the classroom.It the second and the third categories of teachers that we mus be more mindful of. They can make or break any ICT implementation program in a school.

For the second category, the wait-and-see group, they must be convinced about the importance and the usefulness of ICT use. Teachers are in general a fairly pragmatic group of people. They have been inundated with all kinds of fads that has been introduced into the teaching profession. They have seen fads come and go. A (un?)healthy scepticism becomes part of the outlook of such teachers. To convince them, they must not only be told of the importance of ICT use, they must also be convinced that the school is serious in believing that ICT use is important to achieve the curricular goals set for the school; and very importantly, that ICT really works for their students and the teachers.

Such teachers will watch to see if the school is serious about ICT implementation. By “serious” here, I do not mean that, for example, that the school makes it compulsory for teachers to have a certain minimal percentage of their lessons with an ICT element in them. By “serious”, I mean that the school would actually take into consideration, for example, the kind of assessment that the students would undergoing. If the only assessment that matters are the high stakes examinations where students can be drilled to do well in the traditional way, teachers will see little point doing “extra” since no measurable value is attached to the use of ICT in the classroom. In the face of a heavy work load and responsibilities and the perceived lack of time to “cover” the syllabus, ICT use in the classroom will not be given any importance by these teachers. This is made worse if teachers know that the appraisal of their performance is heavily weighted towards how well their students perform in the pen and paper examinations. A whole lot of serious convincing is needed.

For the non-ICT savvy teachers, not only they must be convinced but additional assistance is required if they are going to adapt successfully to using ICT in the classroom. Some of these additional assistance may include even bringing them to an acceptable level of basic ICT skills. It may mean for them to just learn to use word processing or spread sheet software for their own personal use. The training should be of the just-in-time nature.

Getting them to use ICT in the classroom would require a gradual process beginning with the familiar software they already know. Here again school administrators must not set unrealistic expectations of these teachers. I have already mentioned in a previous posting how some school principals banned the use of PowerPoint. For the new users of ICT among teachers, asking them to try something beyond PowerPoint may be asking too much in too little time. Better for them to learn the finer points of using PowerPoint and other simple ICT tools then be stressed out by unrealistic expectations.

The stress of learning to use ICT for these teachers can also be reduced if they are given adequate demonstrations and also a lot of hand holding by more ICT-savvy teachers. This is to give them confidence that someone is helping them and ready to assist. All they need to do is to try and master the simpler ICT tools.

Perhaps, the last important thing is that ICT tools take time to learn and master. Time is needed for teachers to feel confident to use them in front of an audience of usually ICT comepetent students. Rushing it will only lead to unsuccessful lessons in the classrooms.

In short, an ICT integration programme must be people friendly. It is about people first and technology second. The gates to ICT integration will not open unless we do imitate Gandalf at Moria and “Speak Friend, and enter”

In my last post, “We learn what we do”, I suggested that we take a look at what teenagers today are doing online to observe how they interact and learn from their online peers. It was suggested that teenagers today are doing the same things that workers of the future workplace need to do according to studies and even today’s employers. The most prominent aspect perhaps of the teenagers’ activities online is that much of it is a social interaction.

Teenagers enjoy the social interaction that takes place online with their friends. However, this interaction is not totally a waste of time. Teenagers are able to connect with their friends at almost all times of the day. Even if one is not around, one is able to leave messages online which can then be picked up later when we come online.

These teenagers are able to find like-minded souls who can chat about the same interests. They do so through social networking platforms like Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Twitter, Multiply and others. They share their interests whether in music or photographs through these same platforms. They egg on one another, they lavish praise or even trade comments or even insults on these platforms. They exchange information about their pet interests and about their activities and about what is hot too. In short, they socialize conveniently on the Net and while they socialize a lot of collaboration takes place, and through that learning takes place too.

However, I am not suggesting that all learning that is being done in school should then go online and into social networking platforms or the chat medium. The important point or lesson perhaps to be learnt from the example I have given above is that a lot of learning takes place among teenagers today on the Net. The manner in which they learn requires them to acquire the very skills that is sought in the workforce of the future. Skills like collaboration, communication, seeking information, reasoning and other vital skills of the workforce of the future is evident in the social interactions of the teenagers online. But they are currently almost absent in the typical classroom environment of a school. Is it a wonder then that many teenagers find school such a chore and a very unexciting place to be?

It is very much in the hands of teachers and school administrators to try and effect a change in the classroom climate so that learning takes place in an environment more in tune with the requirements of the future workforce. We cannot expect students of today to be the effective workforce of tomorrow by forcing them to sit down and listen most of the time. Clearly the social dynamics under which learning takes place must undergo a change.

Teachers today may not be able to make that change without some assistance. Teachers tend to teach the way they were taught. Teachers tend to also think of literacy that their charges need to acquire as the same literacies that was relevant for them when they were students. This paradigm needs to be changed and it can only occur first, by creating an awareness among teachers and school administrators of the need to change the way teaching and learning takes place.

Secondly, teachers must be given the training that is necessary for them to take a step back in their role as teachers and allow more of the work of learning to be done by their students themselves. In Singapore, the Ministry of Education has been promoting this “Teach Less, Learn More” approach in schools. Teachers must learn to be comfortable to design lessons that require students to explore, collaborate, use abstract thinking skills and even ask questions of their own. If these skills take place in the classroom it should be the product of conscious design on the part of the teachers, and not because of some lucky coincidence. Students must be given the opportunity to rehearse their roles at the future workplace in today’s schools.

Thirdly, a serious re-assessment of learning is required too to reflect this changed paradigm. The over emphasis on high stakes examinations as the main method of deciding who has learnt what is in need of an overhaul. Certainly there will be a place for written tests and examinations but there should be more use of alternative modes of assessment in the school environment to better reflect the way the “new” teaching and learning is to be done.

Schools everywhere today, must take up the challenge to prepare their students to acquire these skills or literacies. Singapore has seen the need for such a change despite its educational system being often lauded as a sound one. Schools in neighboring countries, Indonesia or the Philippines must also be alert to the need for these changes, and perhaps even more so before they get too immersed in high stakes examinations school systems because high stakes examinations system can be truly addictive and hard to give up when one realizes that it only gives illusory highs.