We need ICT teachers, not facilitators

Teaching the youngster to feedWhen did ICT teachers stop becoming teachers and become ‘facilitators’ instead? I’ve largely managed to ignore this sort of nonsense but now it’s getting out of hand. The other day someone said on Twitter or Facebook that he is an ‘active facilitator’, while someone else shared a sign which read “I am not a teacher; I am an activator.”
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Three downsides of the idea of the guide on the side

So much is written these days about the role of the teacher being to “facilitate”, to be the “guide on the side”. This is justified on many grounds, not least that of the children knowing more than their teachers about educational technology. They are, after all, “digital natives”, or so we are told. It seems to me that we have thrown the baby out with the bath water.
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How good is the teaching of ICT? An interview with Edith, an English teenager

EdithWe're always interested in hearing the views of young people, so it was with great pleasure that Elaine and I interviewed Edith. Edith is a teenager living in England, and has some definite views about the teaching of information and communications studies (ICT).

I saw her, not for the first time, at a recent Teachmeet and was struck by her statement that she, and her peers, were being 'under-taught'. This ties in with what I reported in a recent newsletter:

"It's been found recently , by Ofsted, that teachers tend to teach ICT up to the limit of their own knowledge, and that this effectively holds children back."

 

In this interview we explore this and other issues. The podcast lasts just over 19 minutes.


 

The music after the introduction and at the end is Simple Soulman by The Groovebusters, and is under a Creative Commons licence. Hear the band at:  

http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSkYFexYGE

Edith is 14 and attends school in England. She has spoken at Teachmeet events, such as the North London Teachmeet in 2009.

To respond to Edith, please submit a comment in the comments area below, or send me an email.

If you enjoyed listening to Edith's views you may also like our interview with Miller, an American teenager. That will be posted here on the 11th December 2009.

And you will probably enjoy the following: What are your kids learning while you're not looking?

That was the title of a presentation that Miles Berry and I did at the BETT Show 2009. Based on original research, it made it very clear that teachers make life more difficult for themselves, and less than interesting for their students, by ignoring what their students can already do.

For more information, including a link to Miles' blog on the subject and a slide show, see my article on What are your kids learning while you're not looking?  There is also a more up-to-date article I wrote for the IFIP newsletter, which is based in India.