Youth and the information technology
The school has the important role to create an environment where students get access to knowledge and information, in such a way that students can make meaningful use of them in their study to increase own knowledge, gain talent to get information by themselves and process it so that it is useful for themselves in their life. At the same time are the home and the society important information sources for the youth. Nothing comes instead of the other but together along with the students talent, the environment shapes the individual. Information technology has become an important tool in the society in relationship with knowledge, gaining knowledge, process it, expressing the knowledge and usefulness. One of the most important tasks of our schools today is learning to use pedagogical methods and information technology together to create good study environment for the student in relationship with the time they live in. Therefore it is important that the student learns to find knowledge, evaluate it, adapt what is suitable in a meaningful way and make use of it when needed.
The Icelandic official IT policy in education
The Icelandic ministry of education and culture published a policy in March 1996 on information technology in education called "In the power of information". The aim of the policy is to give guidelines for all those that in one way or another are related to education about information technology and scheduled to be carried out or be close to be carried out in 1999. One of the major aims of this policy is that all official aims in relationship with education should contain the possibilities of information technology that is used in every possible way. At the same time the focus will be on life-long-learning that makes it possible and natural for everyone to renew and adapt their knowledge to new circumstances, move to other jobs or create new ones. (In the power of information, pg. 25). This means that the Ministry of Education and Culture expects information technology to play an important role in all aspects of education according to the policy. New laws; regulations, the curriculum and every subject of each school. At the same time the ministry is working on a new curriculum for primary and upper secondary schools. To reach these aims the ministry plans on in-service courses for teachers and simultainously increased publication in the field of Icelandic educational software. Textbooks should be written in such a way that information technology plays a meaningful part. Educational institutions in the teaching education shall at all levels make it obligatory for students to attend to courses on information technology. School leaders, schoolmasters and others, are obliged to learn about the effects that information technology has on the curriculum and place themselves as leaders in the field. And in addition "All classrooms, working areas for teachers and offices shall be connected to the local area network and the local area network to the Internet" (In the power of information, pg. 37). Fullfilling this demands huge financial capacity and therefore it will be interesting to see if those aims will manifest themselves in the year 2000. Although Icelandic shools are considerably well computerized in comparison with many other countries, they still have a long way to go before all classrooms are connected to the local area network and simultainously to the Internet.
Parents role
Although one might say that the school is responsible for the students´ education, in reality the home plays a very important role in all education. Information technology is used more and more in the labour market. Children may or may not see how their parents use computers in their work, if they do use them. At the same time many parents do not use IT in their work. The children might therefore know more about IT than the parents and the parents feel powerless and ignorant in the matter. They play therefore passive role, feel powerless and sometimes express lack of interest when their offsprings are working with computers. This means that the homes do not play their parts in the children's upbringing when it comes to IT.
Some few years ago when I was doing a course in education teachers on Internet, one of the participants expressed admiration for her 13 year old old son's skills in the field of computers. She told about the games he was playing and the games he had solved. Most of the teachers expressed admiration for all the things youngsters could do with computers. None of them knew that the games the boy was playing where either pornographic or very violent. He was admired for using such a material on the computer that he would never be allowed to look at in TV, read books on or do himself. He didn't get proper feedback on right and wrong. Still the feedback he got for his #work# on the computer was always positive while feedback for aother things he accomplished was relevant to what he was doing. The same things happen when it comes to Internet - children play freely without any kind of guidance or supervision. No parent would say to a child at midnight on Saturday, "Go downtown London and come back after two hours and then you have learned things about London". We select time, places to see, things to learn and so forth. The very same is important when Internet is concerned.
Although parents don't understand soccer or handball they go and watch their children play these games. The same can be done whith computers, if parents occationally ask what the child is doing, where they are heading and try to understand what is behind the usage of the computer. Simple questions can help a lot in gaining an understanding of the child's activity within this field and give vital information on wether it is worth the time, and has a content that is suitable. We should not mix this with fear of bad things on the Internet. Internet is neither worse nor better than the people that inhabit this earth. But still it is quite natural to learn how to behave and where to go on the Internet just like everywhere else.
The teacher's role
Teachers are facing more challenges and changes in their work than they have done for a long time.; changes that many of them have not asked for and for which some of them have difficulties in understanding the need. They have tought their subjects for years and been quite successful but now they are urged to use IT in their classroom. Language teaching is one of these subjects, both native language and foreign language. Those who have the English language as native tounge do not have the problem that a large part of the Internet and the educational software is in a foreign language. In Iceland this is definately an issue that affects the use of information technology. Icelandic is an old language and a very important factor in the identity of the Icelanders as a nation. At the same time Iceland has only approx. 265.000 inhabitants so it is impossible that every educational software and information is created or recreated in our own language. Native language teachers fear that information technology affects the language since the programs used and the information gained is largely in English. Just using a word processing program such as Microsoft Word means that students have to learn how to "save" a document and "print" a "file" instead of to "vista" and "prenta" the "skjal". They fear that this will encourage youngsters to use English words instead of Icelandic. This is just one simple example. But by avoiding computers in their classes they can not at the same time make use of the computer as an aid and a working tool of the language they are teaching. Although word processing programs exist in Icelandic they outdate fast and it is not always easy to keep up with the latest possibilities. Besides there are so many other programs such as spread sheet programs, databases and educational programs that it is neither possible to write an Icelandic one nor translate a foreign version. Fortunately Icelandic educational software is being made and is constantly developing so Icelandic teachers will get a variety of Icelandic edcuational software.Never the less we can never fulfill all the needs ourselves. Teachers avoiding the use of computers in the classroom often have valid points for theire avoidance. On the other hand teachers have to look further than just to the subject they are teaching.
Although teachers have a point and that they are quite right in expressing their concerns openly, the fact is that computers are important tools that effect the life of every subject of our society in one way or the other. Our students today are our future and in our present computers play an important role and nothing implies that it shall not be so in the future society where our students are going to work and live. Therefore teachers have obligations towards their students and society to use these tools in the field of education in such a way that students can make meaningful use of computers in their future studies, work and life. If students only use computers at home, with friends and in specially designed computer classes, it is less likely that they have the possibility later on to choose when to use a computer and when to favor other methods. They will be deprived of the possibilities of making the most of what they are doing with the help of computers.
When computers and software are introduced to teachers very often pedagogical methods are either built into the introduction and/or the program itelf. So not only are the teachers introduced to new tools but told to change methods which they have learned and developed in their own way for years. Instead of asking the teachers how they teach and what they think of as "best methods" to enable students to learn, they are told how to teach. Often this is done by computer specialists or those who have never tought themselves or teachers that do not share the same opinion as to what pedagogical methods are the best. It is easy to understand the resistanse of teachers in that position. It is very important to listen to teachers and help them finding tools that not only suit their subject but also their teaching methods.
Not all teachers resist the changes and eagerly start using computers in their classrooms in all possible ways. Often they do it without thinking about pedagogy or their own reason for doing it. They are just excited about the new techology and insist they must use computers since that is "the future". They demand computers in the latest fashion, high quality printers, scanners, Internet connection, the most recent software and feel that in this equipment lies the key to their students success. The computer and the software become the subject instead of what the students really have to learn or want to learn.
For teachers therefore it is very important to get training so they can choose or reject the use of computers in every aspect of their subject. When they have the ability to choose, it is more likely that computers will be used in an effective way in education.
The students
As mentioned before students often get false feedback on their skills with computers. In the computer science classes in my upper secondary school I hvae met many students that told me when they showed up for the first lesson, that they really didn't need to be there; they knew everything and most likely more than I. Only once in seven years of teaching did I meet a student that had learned enough by himself to pass the course. All the others really needed the classes and sometimes more than those that had used computers very little. Those who knew themsleves to be far from knowledgeable in this field were ready to learn but the others resisted since they where so sure of themselves that they didn't take the time to learn. Some of them failed the courses they had signed up for. So it is very important that both parents and teachers should give students the appropriate feedback on their performance.
The Internet
Inernet has been the tool within information technology that has been in the news for some time. In 1992 when The Icelandic Educational Network (Ismennt) (http://www.ismennt.is) was established over 90% of Icelandic schools where connected to Internet. When this is written, four years later, over 30% of Icelandic teachers have participated in one or more in-service courses on Internet either offered by Ismennt, The University Collegue of Education (http://www.khi.is) or others. Most of Ismennt's courses were on-line distance courses that teachers could take from their home or their school. Therefore it didn't matter where teachers live weather they could learn about Internet and educational use of Internet. At the same time Icelandic students are not using Internet in their education due to recent survey (Anna Kristjánsdóttir, unpublished) without any correlation what so ever with how many teachers participated in those courses.
Despite this quite a number of teachers have brought Internet into their classroom in a way that others can learn from it. Harpa Hreinsdóttir, a native litterature teacher, has developed with her students World Wide Web pages on old Icelandic sagas (http://rvik.ismennt.is/~harpa/forn). Harpa's example is not only a good example in the field of litterature education but also an ideal model of what teachers can do with their students by publishing on Internet their own version of what they are learning. George Douglas has created for his students pages on geology and astrology (http://rvik.ismennt.is/~george). Both of these won prize for outstanding pedagogical use of computers in their subjects by Icelandic Society for Information Processing.
Many students have participated in the Kidlink project (http://www.kidlink.org) for children aged 10-15, both in English and the Danish language. Kidlink offers projects and communication in English, nordic (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish), Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese. They are planning to open a project area for kids in Hebrew and French. In Kidlink teachers have found safe projects for children where they can plan individual letter exchange, projects and topics for many subjects including language, sport, math, environmental studies, geography and more.
The future
An official policy of information technology in education is certainly helpful when choosing where to aim, but without actual participation from all parts it will never be more than a paper. All educational institutions have to work on their own policy and there parents and teachers play an important role. Although Iceland is a considerably small country the educational authorities have to solve most of the tasks bigger countries have to solve. Therefore it is important for us to join our strengh to build up education with high quality. Information technology will play an important role in our society at least in the nearest future as it does now. Life long learning is the key to success in a constantly changing environment. Our new policy is our aim but only the future can tell what results it will bring about.
Bibliography
Anna Kristjánsdóttir. 1996. The Influence of Information Technology on Learning and Learning Environments. University Collegue of Education. Unpublished.
In the Power of Information. 1996. Reykjavík, Iceland. The Ministry of Education and Culture.
The author
Lára Stefánsdóttir (http://rvik.ismennt.is/~lara) works freelance as consultant and teacher on Internet in education. She was one of the establishers of the Icelandic Educational Network (Ismennt) in 1992 and worked until late 1995 as educational director of Ismennt. She also tought computer science in an upper secondary school for 7 years. Her current work is for The Ministry of Education and Culture, The University Collegue of Education, Telia InfoMedia AB in Sweden, Women's Educational Center at Akureyri and more. She has given talks on the subject of Internet in education in Brazil, Denmark, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America as well as in Iceland. She is assistant project director of the Kidlink project on Internet. Lára also was an active member of the group writing the policy on IT in education published in The Power of Information by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Box 472, 602 Akureyri, Iceland. Tel: 354-896-3357 (also voicemail). E-mail: lara@ismennt.is
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Thanks to Rita Birmans for background and line
Last update December 27th. 1997.