Educator angst as digital frontier looms
A digital dawn is fast approaching the nation’s classrooms, but teachers remain in the dark, Manawatu¯ educators warn.
Next year schools can begin teaching a new digital curriculum from years one to 10, but it must be in use at all schools by the start of 2020, Education Minister Nikki Kaye announced in June.
The two key components are ‘‘computational thinking’’ and ‘‘designing and developing digital outcomes’’.
However, teachers knew little about the content and breadth of the curriculum, or what extra support and paid release time would be provided to help them learn it, said NZEI national representative and digital primary school teacher Liam Rutherford.
‘‘I think this is so important. The world’s changing, and it’s changing relatively quickly with increases in technology ... The new digital curriculum isn’t just another strand, it’s not something that should be seen as isolated, and this isn’t just a tweak. I think this could cause major problems.’’
Some schools already include digital learning, but at other schools it is much more limited, he said.
‘‘We need to acknowledge teachers are going to have a different range of needs. Some teachers haven’t spent a lot of time in their professional life working with technology.
‘‘We need to give them that knowledge, and time to go back to their classroom to work out what that means in action, and allow them to get together with other teachers and see what’s working.’’
He was concerned the material would take more than a weekend conference to learn, some schools could leave it to the end of 2019, and that it would clash with an ‘‘already stretched workload’’.
In June the Principals’ Federation told Stuff they believed only 4000 of New Zealand’s 100,000 teachers had the skills to put the curriculum in place.
Ministry of Education deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement Ellen Macgregor-reid said after ‘‘extensive consultation’’ the new curriculum would be published in December, ready for term one 2018.
Some $40 million was allocated to help schools prepare. Of this, $24 million was earmarked for professional development and introducing the programme to teachers.
‘‘We’re confident this programme will give all teachers the opportunity to ready for the new curriculum,’’ she said.
Ross Intermediate principal Wayne Jenkins said schools have had targeted funding for elearning and information and communications technology for some time, but only for equipment.
‘‘Teacher training and professional development is a different matter and there needs to be direct resourcing to schools to support this curriculum.’’
Winchester School principal Bede Gilmore said he was also concerned about the lack of information about the rollout and professional development.
‘‘There are always private providers, but these are expensive and don’t guarantee consistency of messages and teaching practices across schools.’’
His school hoped to introduce the new material as a module, alongside topics such as Spanish and dance, where only one teacher would need the strong specialist knowledge in this area, he said.