There are many compelling reasons to use ICT in our classrooms, from motivating students and enhancing the learning experience to facilitating planning and the organisational elements of education. All of these are significant but the focus of this chapter is broader and deals with the complex relationship between education, changes in society and children’s lives. It is inspired by doctoral research that asked: ‘Is learning changing in the Digital Age?’ where I looked at how society and children’s lives were changing outside of school and how education was responding to this. The chapter is in four parts. The first is an overview of literature and research relating to the concept of the Digital Age and education. We will then look at how children are understood within the Digital Age, their informal engagement with ICT outside of school and how this relates to ICT use in school. The third section presents some of the key findings from the empirical research that I conducted with education stakeholders and children. One of the most prominent findings was the importance of fostering children’s critical, creative and collaborative abilities, as these are seen as crucial in ensuring that children can flourish in the Digital Age. The final section explores how you can do this in your teaching.
Good pedagogy builds from what children already know and
understand. When it comes to the children we are now teaching do we see them as
digital natives or digital novices? The concept of the ‘digital native’ was
introduced by Marc Prensky to describe children who have spent their ‘entire
lives’ surrounded by ICT. He claims that due to their interaction with ICT they
‘think and process information fundamentally differently from their
predecessors’ – digital immigrants (2001: 1–2). While digital immigrants may
learn and use new technologies they tend to retain their ‘accent’. The problem
for education then, according to Prensky, is that digital immigrant teachers
are trying to teach digital natives in an outdated language. According to
Prensky, these students are wired differently and learn differently, and
therefore both the methodology and the content of our teaching need to change.
Education and society have a dynamic and interactive
relationship. This means that they influence each other. What happens in education
has an impact on how society, the economy, culture and politics develop. The
reverse is also true because changes in society, culture and politics have a
bearing on what is expected of education. ICT in education is a clear example
of this interactive relationship. The significant investment in, and promotion
of, technology in education is not limited to particular schools, or districts
or countries. At present, nearly every country in the world, regardless of
geopolitical, economic or social circumstance, has implemented an educational
technology strategy (Selwyn, 2011). Towards the late 1990s in many Western
countries, the industry around information and communication was seen to have
taken over from the more traditional manufacture of goods (Webster, 2006;
Selwyn, 2011). This shift was perpetuated by the development of digital
technologies and the use of these technologies in education was important in
developing the information economy within a country. What is common among these
policies is a close interlinking of education with employability, productivity
and the wealth of the nation. Investing in ICT use in education is a core
element in investing in the future of the national economy (Ball, 1999). This
is especially important in a global competitive economy.
