Technology doesn’t exclude learners, teachers do!

A critique of the nature and scope of digital practices within our education system that include or exclude marginalised learners

Professor Jane SealePlymouth E-Learning Conference Keynote, April 6th 2011

My Digital Inclusion Journey

Underpinning Personal Position

• 1980’s All the talk was of the potential of microcomputers: innovation

• Thirty years later, the question we all ask is still: “ How can we exploit the potential of technologies” ?

• This is the wrong question• In asking the wrong question, we are denying

the potential of learners, and of ourselves

Central Argument

We invest all the power and potential in the technology and forget that we have a vital role to play

Overview

• Draw on examples from my own research, consultancy and experience; ranging from adult and community settings to Higher Education.

• Argue that it is important for us as a professional community to examine our digital practices; – distil out what it is that we do that either includes or

excludes – question the influences on these practices.

What is Digital Inclusion?

• Typical definition often applied by government agencies and policy makers:– All members of society are able to access the affordances offered by technology use

• Addressing inequalities, where those unable to access the affordances of technology use are disadvantaged, marginalised– Digitally excluded

Digital exclusion=Social exclusion

=Technological determinism• Ufi 2007 report, drawing on ONS and Ofcom stats– Two thirds of digitally excluded people are

economically inactive– 62% of those with no educational qualifications are

digitally excluded– 69% of those who live alone are digitally excluded

• Technology is central to everything we do, and therefore central to our inclusion in society

Scoping a DI conceptual framework

• Access– To technology and related services

• Use– Being able to use (e.g. digital literacies)– Nature of use: gradations of use– Quality of use, “best” use ,“smart use”, “meaningful

use”

• Empowerment– Independent and self-sufficient (on whose terms?)– Exerting control and choice over use

• Participation– Civic engagement through to participation in

education– Passive participation through to active participation

(having an influence in the way technologies are used)

Simple

Tangible

Complex

Less Tangible

Access and technology are just the tip of the iceberg

What do we do to exclude?

We exert power by rationing access

Lack of staff training

Lack of embedding

Technology looks good in the photos, but no real commitment

We twist policy & law to justify non-action

e.g. Out of fear that hearing impaired students will use DDA to complain if they cannot access auditory material provided in online learning resources, an institution:– Removes all speakers and headphones from all

publicly networked PC’s– Assume that all students are now equally

disadvantaged, and that this is OK– It is not- It marginalises further

We oppress through cynicism, born of privilege

• “The digital Inclusion debate is the enemy of progress and the digital divide is not as big as many claim.”– Former school governor, CEO of a technology company,

angry that progress towards using the Internet within the classroom was hindered through concerns over exclusion; that not all the children would have access to the Internet at home. • It was only a small number of children who did not have access to

the Internet at home, so why couldn’t alternative arrangements be made for these few children, like giving them homework that did not require use of the Internet?

We perpetuate rather than challenge exclusion

•To ask such a question is to misunderstand the digital divide.

–It is not necessarily about how many people are digitally excluded or offline, but how few opportunities are afforded to such people compared to those who are digitally included.

–Furthermore, such a question begs the response: why did it not occur to the school to find a way to provide out of school Internet access for those few children who did not have it?

Technology comes with strings attached

• Padfield and Jordan- research in Scotland on initiatives to use laptops/ICT in outreach schools with traveller children– Reluctance by some teachers, policy makers,

communities to provide technologies to travellers – seen as less or not deserving of them

– Some teachers had low expectations of success and lack of motivation to work with traveller children

We question “their” right to technology

• Sarah B I used to hear people talk about the dyslexic ones getting a free laptop, and I always felt that that was a thing that non-disabled people disliked [..]

• SarahD It’s so unfair they say just because you are dyslexic.• Elad I’ve had that as well, just because I get extra time in exams and they

don’t understand• SarahD I’m not pretending to be dyslexic just so that I can get a laptop [..]

You don’t want to be dyslexic – trust me • AndyL There’s no visible clue, Oh your dyslexic. “Oh, you look the same,

you’re not limping, you’re not in a chair. They can’t tell. “What’s so special about this dyslexia ‘thing’ that you’ve got?” People have no ability to grasp what it is.

• Sarah D I have heard some people say that dyslexia is just a completely made up thing! […] I was like OK, for someone who doesn’t have any idea what it is like to have dyslexia – you cannot just say that!

We just don’t think about the impact of our “pedagogy”

Nikki: On being required to post comments on discussion list in order to pass unit: “The website gets jammed up and crashes. On MSN you can see who’s logged on. On there you can’t. If you put a message on, you can sit there for 2 hours waiting for a reply. I had to continue to go back to the library. Those who have internet at home can check it all day. But, I went to the library in my pyjamas because it got so late!This is unfair.If you don’t communicate on there, you don’t pass. The student residence are the ones who don’t have the internet? Ours are 40 years old and condemned. The new ones are supposed to have the internet. Eventually I managed to do my project. “

We confuse safeguarding learners with safeguarding ourselves

• E.g. Justify “peering over the shoulder” of looked after children in care homes who are only permitted to use computers in public spaces:– Ignore potential for promoting “capable” identities

and celebrating abilities of looked after children who thrive in online environments as well as potential for communication & social belonging

We allow our risk perceptions to dominate

“Generally speaking, the young adults do not assess the risk of getting into trouble as seriously as they assess the risk of not having anything at all ever happen to them. However, to get permission from their caregivers to go on using the Internet, it is important that they reassure those caregivers by declaring themselves to be aware of the different risk strategies they need to use on the Internet (Lofgren-Marteson: 2008:p133)”

Why do we exclude?

Why?…… I!

• I don’t want to do anything that is more work for me

• I don’t want to take a risk, because I might get into trouble

• I’m not convinced it is worth it• I don’t see the injustice• I don’t want you to become more like me– Do we have a lot personally invested in

maintaining the divide?

Why?

• Technology does not necessarily redefine our notions of disadvantage

• In over-identifying with the technologies we lose sight of the real structural barriers to inclusion:– Our attitudes and beliefs regarding what it is to be

different or normal, – the value and place people different to us have in

society – expectations about their rights and responsibilities

Hope?• Paulo Freire (1998) Pedagogy of Hope– Without rage and love there is no hope

• Len Barton (2003) – Hope involves an informed recognition of the

offensive nature of current conditions and relations and a belief that the possibilities of change are not foreclosed

Cause for hope

George Roberts PhD (2011): Community IT Centre

Haidar, single dad:I’ve been using it for the last two years. I come here almost everyday during the weekdays with my daughter after school. It’s something that she looks forward to and what else have we got? I’m currently studying computer maintenance on Saturdays, here at the centre, which is local to me…I’ve worked in PCs and stuff before, but it’s really updating my knowledge. And, the IT Centre has also helped me acquire information on the Internet as I do not have the Internet at home. Currently I’m applying for jobs, I’m using the IT Centre. My daughter comes here and uses the IT hub on Saturday to do homework. She wants to be part of the community team, while Dad’s doing his PC Maintenance Course, she’s very keen to come and do her homework. So it’s a very good bonding station where people are free to talk and exchange information and experiences.

How? At an organisational level

For the people, by the peopleLocal “Learning Champions”Structure and Freedom: courses and self-chosen developmentNo user id’s and passwordsNo imposed time-limits on use of PC’s

Sugata Mitra: The Hole in the Wall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INeDq0eFpEA

How? At the teacher level

• 1st level interpretation:– Power of Technology– Put computers in slum areas and childrens’ language skills and test

scores improve

• 2nd level interpretation:– Power of children: teaching themselves

• 3rd level interpretation:– Power of teachers and adults: encourage; to ask the question from

which exploration emerges: sound pedagogic principles- discovery learning, constructivism, scaffolding

– Belief in the potential of the learners

Re-imagining potential

Inter-Life (TLRP-TEL) You Tube clip 1min-4min

Supporting SEN learners at Mundella School : You Tube Clip

Thank you, Questions

jane.seale@plymouth.ac.uk