education.au

June 2008 

Many of Australia’s educators are internet savvy and locked into the digital revolution, but they need more access and support to transform classrooms for the 21st century. 

Otherwise our schools and other learning institutions run the risk of turning off both students and the current political momentum.

They are among the key findings of a recent survey conducted by education.au, the national agency set up to support the integration of technology in teaching and learning in Australia.

Believed to be the first detailed national survey of its kind in Australia, it aimed particularly to outline future roles and responsibilities for education.au’s advanced Education Network Australia site (www.edna.edu.au), a unique and dedicated repository of thousands of online resources for education, training and research.

education.au Chief Executive Greg Black said that the Commonwealth Government’s ‘Digital Education Revolution’ was a fantastic initiative but the benefit wouldn’t be maximized unless there was a substantial additional investment in supporting teachers to learn how to best use the technology in their teaching.

“For example one of the biggest investments over the past five years in our primary schools has been electronic whiteboards but, if you go out into many classrooms, you’ll find that the technology is being used as very expensive chalkboards,” he said. “There’s no point having the technology if we can’t use it to best effect.”

According to the online and focus group survey of 1,124 respondents across Australia – the majority of whom had been working in education for more than 10 years - 85 per cent of educators use the internet for work-related purposes at least once a day.

The overwhelming majority (79 per cent) said the internet had become an essential part of their work, although only 36 per cent regarded themselves as proficient and/or confident in their use of ICT to support their work. Only 27 per cent said the internet was transforming the way they engaged their students within and beyond the classroom.

Critically, they cited a range of barriers they commonly experienced in using online technologies for teaching and learning, including:

• poor infrastructure, bandwidth, equipment reliability, accessibility of logins or permissions (41 per cent)
• blocking/filtering of internet content (40 per cent)
• limited access to computers or internet connections (21 per cent)
• limited confidence or expertise in the use of computer technologies or software (20 per cent) and/or
• lack of relevant resources on the internet (12 per cent).

Mr Black said the survey showed the willingness of many teachers to embrace new technologies to enhance their teaching and professional development, but it sounded a major warning too. A combination of fear about cyberbullying and predatory behaviour, issues relating to data security, and old-fashioned reluctance to allow students to use in classrooms what’s seen as ‘fun’ technology, such as mobile phones, was blocking the pathway to the future, he said.

"Of course we need levels of protection, but we’ve got a generation of kids who are saying that they actually have to ‘power down’ when they go to school,” he said. “My fear is not only that we’re putting kids off learning, but we’ll start to make governments question whether or not it’s worth all the investment they’re putting into the digital education revolution.”

Mr Black said education.au was seeking to develop resources through edna to assist teachers, including practical demonstrations of how to use technology in the classroom..

“We’re setting up systems so that educators at every level – primary, secondary and tertiary education – can share good practice, research and ideas,” he said.

The education.au survey canvassed the views of a range of educators – mostly teachers, trainers, lecturers and tutors, plus educational administrators such as principals and directors, project or curriculum advisers and researchers, ICT administrators, librarians and other student support.

Nearly all (96 per cent) used search engines like Google and Yahoo, while 45 per cent tapped into online communities (email discussion lists, web forums etc), 39 per cent used learning management systems (e.g. Blackboard and Moodle), and 33 per cent employed subject or discipline data bases (such as research database EBSCO or the medical specialist site MedLine).

The main professional reasons they used the internet included research (83 per cent), finding learning resources for their students, (80 per cent), professional development (64 per cent), interacting with colleagues (61 per cent), teaching and communicating with students (55 per cent), and administration, such as assessment and reporting (54 per cent).

The opportunities and benefits identified for the use of internet services and tools for teaching and learning included the:

• vast resources and knowledge that can be provided to teachers and students
• ability to reach people at the one time in multiple locations
• providing students with choice
• creation of vibrant learning communities
• flexibility, accessibility and interactivity
• use of shared resources and
• advantage of up-to-date resources.  

Media please note: For more results or information, please contact:

Greg Black, education.au 08 8334 3203