Another series of edTech workshops concluded for the academic year on Wednesday 27th January in Donabate Community College. This is the second year of these workshops, designed for teachers and organised by David Ganly (Head of ICT in DCC). Much credit is due to David for his passionate interest and leadership in this regard and his determination to ensure that Donabate Community College is a school where students who use 1:1 devices (in our case iPads) are provided with a range of opportunities to make full use of the devices. His mantra is that if parents have invested so much money in the technology their children use at school, it is our responsibility to make sure that teachers are able and keen to utilise the devices in a range of ways. Of course, none of these workshops would be possible without the commitment of management to the ongoing training and sincere thanks are due to Anthony Creevey (Principal) and Marian Flynn (Vice-Principal) for their ongoing support for this initiative.
The workshops are part of a collaborative engagement with Bridge 21. Bridge 21 is an education programme based in Trinity College Dublin, which offers a new model of learning that is team-based, technology mediated, project based and cross curricular. And while there are limitations for us as teachers and as a school to implement the programme, the engagement of some teachers with the programme has led to innovative and creative departures in teaching methods and styles.
For this final workshop we were joined by Sean Gallagher, deputy director of ICT in the PDST (Professional Development Service for Teachers), by Debbie Howlett, head of ICT in the DDLETB (Dublin and Dun Laoighaire Education and Training Board), by Oisin Scollard, Child Safety Manager in Google, by Elijah Lawal, the User Safer Manager for Europe in Google and by Kevin Sullivan, Programme Coordinator at Bridge 21, Ciaran Bauer, Programme Manager Bridge 21 and Brendan Tangney, Professor in Computer Science and Statistics and Co-Director of Trinity’s Centre for Research and IT in Education. A very illustrious line up of experts in the fields of technology and education.
Before the workshops kicked off after school, some Transition Year Journalism students showed two of our guests from Google the TY website (www.tyfeed.weebly.com), youtube channel (tynewsfeed) and twitter feed (tyfeed). To say they were impressed with the quality of work by the students and the level of innovation is an understatement. It is wonderful therefore, when such experts have so many positive things to say about our work. Brendan Tangney has praised the commitment of teachers and has commented that the level of discussion and engagement with technology is almost without compare throughout the country. Oisin Scollard from Google wrote “I was very impressed by the school, students, teachers and tech set up. Really well done.” It is great to finish this series of workshops with such positive feedback and it encourages us all to keep learning, to keep trying new things and to keep up the level of engagement with technology.
The workshops are very much based on teacher participation and the generation and presentation of material by teachers to reflect the types of ways in which they are asking their students to engage in technology and to develop collaborative skills, independent learning skills and creative thinking skills in the classroom and in their own work. This is a world away from the concerns presented in the recent OECD report which questions the usefulness and appropriacy of 1:1 devices and indeed, teachers who participate in the programme would agree with the OECD report in that it is very important that we are not naïve about the implementation of technology in the classroom and not changing simply for the sake of doing so.
However, as teachers at DCC have demonstrated, a proper engagement with the technology, ongoing training and discussion about the uses of technology for educational purposes and the reality of using iPads in the classroom day in and day out has led to a very rich learning environment for teaching and learning for both teachers and students. It has also led to a lot of debate and argument about the positives and negatives of the use of technology in the classroom and we look with confidence to the future.
