Reinventing the wheel

Last night I was privileged to attend the first TEDx in French held in Quebec. It was organized by Pierre Poulin, a teacher at Ecole Wilfred-Bastien in Saint-Leonard. Pierre and his team merit applause and recognition for their initiative in organizing the event which is part of a worldwide series of conferences bringing together people from Technology, Entertainment and Design. The theme of this TEDx was technology integration in education. Notable speakers included Ronald Canuel, executive director of the Canadian Education Association and educators Francois Burdon and Francois Rivest as well as a number of students describing their vision of a modern education and school. Despite technical glitches it was an excellent effort and thoroughly enjoyable. Recordings of the presentations will soon be available on U-Tube

However I got the impression that the speakers were preaching to the converted. The audience was primarily composed of educators already using or committed to technology as a pedagogical tool. It was discouraging to hear the same arguments in favor of integrating technology into the classroom that have been advanced for the last decade. One speaker cited research from Keri Karsenti dated 2003 ignoring more recent and more significant published research based on experiences in Quebec published in 2011. Only one speaker referenced the project of board-wide technology integration launched in 2003 by the Eastern Townships School board. The lack of awareness of progress elsewhere emphasized the need for educators and education to learn what we teach to preschoolers and kindergarten students - the value and benefits of sharing. Earnest dedicated educators discover for themselves the wonders of integrating technology into pedagogy, but too often those discoveries remail confined to a single classroom or, at best, a pilot school. Growing evidence clearly shows that ubiquitous access to information and the capacity to create content on the Internet is transformational in education. Nobody contests the phenomenon of increasing disengagement among students whose universe is largely digital except in schools where the content and techniques of learning are closer to the 19th than the 21st century. It is sad that highly motivated innovative teachers and educators must devote so much energy to developing and testing practices that have already been tested and consolidated elsewhere. We need those energies devoted to exploring even better pedagogical practices and integrating the array of newly available technologies. Most speakers were focused on the beginning stages of integration, rather than pushing the frontiers toward e-textbooks, new inexpensive apps available for i-pads and smart phones, or how to make use of pocket computing devices already owned and used by students (smartphones, i-pods, flip-video cameras). The pioneers need to begin experimenting with three-dimensional printers, text-to-speech, and virtual schools.

It is time to break down the barriers. We need to recognize that the world has changed. Education is playing "catch-up". We don't even need to like it but we absolutely must acknowledge it. Unless and until we learn to address students in the way that their perceptions understand and in the way that they learn, education will continue to fail far too many. The desperate need is to make education relevant to students who will be in the workforce well into the second half of this century. They will be using technology not yet invented to meet needs not yet identified and we need to equip them with the skills and attitudes to do that. We can't afford to let 20% drop out of school, many because of boredom. We can't afford to graduate students who are not committed to lifelong learning.

I salute the educators who spoke at the TEDx and those who gave up an evening of precious leisure to attend. We need to do much more to exchange experiences and consolidate progress. It was a great first step that needs to be replicated everywhere. We need to stop reinventing the wheel!