From Luddite to tech evangelist - you have nothing to lose but your workload
Collaboration is at the heart of good teaching, but getting teachers to work together regularly can sometimes be a challenge.
This issue was addressed in a recent report by the Independent Teacher Workload Review Group (Eliminating unnecessary workload around planning and teaching resources). According to the report, reducing workload is essential if schools are to function more effectively, and collaborative planning is key to this.
And when it comes to working together effectively, technology can really help speed up the process. So, how can we change the culture so that technology is used in every aspect of school life?
To start with, we must accept that it will improve outcomes: for teachers, for students and for support staff. And that requires leadership at every level, as well as a shared vision of where the school wants to be within a certain time frame. Additionally, leaders - be they senior or middle - must create the space and time for staff to work together meaningfully.
Teaching the teachers
Here’s one example of how this can be done. When I was head of English I wanted a department of strong individuals to work together as a team. Technology was crucial in making this happen: I paired (broadly speaking) “tech evangelists” with “Luddite” teachers, so that the former could spread good practice by mentoring the latter.
First, I established that the school would recognise this work as CPD. Then, I asked experienced technology users to list their areas of expertise (ranging from a facility with spreadsheets to experience of using video in the classroom) and pinned this information on a noticeboard.
Next, I asked everyone in the department to select at least three “courses” from the ones on offer, and from there it was easy to match up the teachers with significant gaps in their knowledge with those who could help them learn. I could also plug gaps I knew the department had developed.
Working in pairs or threes, teachers met in protected time, but also worked online for a term, recording their progress on video, blogs, or in Google Docs so that others could access the archive. It worked because these were colleagues who felt that no question was too obvious to ask, and each challenge addressed a shared problem.
I used G Suite for Education (previously Google Apps for Education), but you could try other cloud-based collaborative platforms such as Microsoft Office 365, Box, or Evernote. I knew the department was progressing when I observed lessons taught by two teachers but planned by a third, and all done online.
We even introduced a shared markbook which made predicted grades and performance tracking more coherent and informed. We were working together, and our workload decreased. It was also easy to share our folders with other departments, modelling good practice, subject by subject.
Moving this key area of professional development primarily online took away the time pressure teachers often feel when they’re in school. Suddenly the work could be done at home, whenever they liked. Colleagues also commented favourably that working online meant their weak spots were not exposed to others, as they might be in CPD sessions delivered in school computer rooms, where the learning (or not) is public and the pace is dictated by the session leader.
Crowdsourcing CPD
Most teachers want to learn, but are often overwhelmed by the plethora of choice available from technology companies. School and curriculum leaders can guide their staff, but even they sometimes need advice in such a rapidly changing educational landscape.
The key thing is to get started and to learn from others, and many of the best answers today are crowdsourced. Twitter is an excellent place to ask questions about what works in other schools as so many teachers are active on the platform. When I started using social media to ask about school-based issues, I was given advice on a number of programs by other teachers who had no reason to recommend them other than to promote good practice. Many of these not only inspired my classroom practice but also helped me to work more efficiently. These are just few I would recommend to get started with:
- Showbie, a collaboration app for the classroom, is gaining a lot of ground in schools around the world, and has evidence to prove the impact it can have. Teachers who use the program speak highly of how it has transformed how they run their departments and their classrooms. The app enables users to share information instantly, and allows students to receive personalised feedback, both oral and written.
- Explain Everything is an interactive whiteboard that’s great for promoting collaborative learning and keeping students of all abilities organised; it also creates an archive of resources that departments can share very easily. Many teachers have told me how often they use it to extend learning and add creativity to their lessons.
- Quizlet is another popular learning tool which I have seen used very effectively as part of a starter activity or in more developed tasks, in classes ranging from the lowest to the highest ability students.
All these apps work well when outcomes have been agreed by staff. And the fact that they are easy to use means they are more likely to succeed.
Sharing best practice
Once such apps have become part of a teacher’s toolkit the next step is to share, and it’s up to school leaders to create the space for this to happen. Blogger is probably the most user-friendly blogging platform: I myself have used it to plan lessons, and to share them in advance with students and colleagues. This helps with my preparation, and allows us all to benefit from sharing and adapting resources.
Great collaborative planning springs from getting a bunch of people together in one room, and when that “room” is online and extends across national boundaries, that can bring huge rewards. Evidence-informed teaching is largely developed through Twitter and other social media that have at their heart a commitment to sharing. Suddenly, teachers are collaborating across cultures and sectors, gaining new resources and greater understanding. It is a powerful source of professional development.
Of course, technology is not a silver bullet; far from it. Indeed, sometimes students will need to use certain apps, or devices, to learn that the old-school alternatives remain the best: no app can capture the visceral experience of dissecting a pig’s heart, for example; no virtual reality program can create the feeling of exhilaration you get from delivering a faultless soliloquy from Macbeth in front of your classmates. And for a teacher nothing beats seeing your students do these things either.
But what if you film both experiences and share them with other schools? Recording moments, reflecting on them, getting better through practice...such things can be done when experienced teachers use technology appropriately. Technology can connect, socialise, visualise and make us think again about what we are learning and how it can be reimagined.
Keeping collaboration going
As a secondary school teacher, and as a parent of teenagers, I no longer visit primary schools. When I did go into their classrooms, and try to sit on those tiny red seats, I watched young children learning together, focusing on shared tasks. It seems that, over time, schools move them away from that, getting them to unlearn collaboration, guiding them towards individual projects that end with them sitting at a desk, in a hall, staring at an examination paper, alone.
But, of course, they are not alone because life is social and collaborative, and until the moment when a student hears those ominous words (“you may turn over your question paper”) we must support them, keep them talking. We must also keep listening, and in doing so we will ensure that our students keep progressing - and that we, as teachers, keep learning.
New technology often reduces experienced teachers and school leaders to feeling like that child again, but instead of letting it intimidate us, we should approach technology with a sense of wonder, of potential, and a desire to learn again.
Dr David James is deputy head (academic) at Bryanston School in Dorset