Successful classroom tech is about educating the educators
- Last Updated: Thursday, 25 September 2008 01:00
By Marie Boran
Teachers are becoming bigger proponents of using ICT in classrooms than they are given credit for. That's according to a company whose spelling software is deployed in 50pc of Irish schools.
Teachers are becoming bigger proponents of using ICT in classrooms than they are given credit for. That's according to a company whose spelling software is deployed in 50pc of Irish schools.
Seamus McGuinness, managing director of tech firm Prime-Ed believes a pedagogical approach to learning, combined with ICT resources, is transforming the learning process.
It is not merely about the presence of technology in the classroom, but rather how educators are now becoming more comfortable with using it, he says.
Prime-Ed has been producing software for Irish schools over the past seven years and the experience has shaped McGuinness's thinking. "First off, the great thing about technology in Ireland is that it has come a long way since the first computer rooms were installed in the late Nineties with the first government grants.
"The past few years really have seen greater use of technology in the classroom by teachers. We've been working with Promethean interactive whiteboards in the UK for a number of years, and in the past three years we have been supplying the Irish market.
"We didn't see a market for it before then, but teachers nowadays are accepting and using technology at a much higher level than ever before, and a lot of that confidence has come through better training."
McGuinness says the important thing is not that his firm simply sells ICT equipment and software, but that it also provides training courses for the educators: "Many of the teacher-training colleges around the country such as St Patrick's use our technology as part of their course, and graduates now emerging have a level of competence in the use of these."
While McGuinness says this is creating a new wave of technology-savvy teachers, it is important to realise that those who have been teaching for years are also keen to adapt to the new technologies.
"Educators bringing new tech skills such as the use of school networks or interactive whiteboards have shared this knowledge with current teachers, who have readily picked the skills up."
It is also a matter of perspective, says McGuinness. Where someone sees simple technology such as a digital camera and assumes it's just for taking pictures, a pedagogical approach has teachers incorporating it into a fun learning process.
"All these primary-school teachers in training are exposed to e-learning methodologies, and when they enter their first job, they push their use because technology is an integral part of that training," says McGuinness.
