Now.. I am not surprised that he is writing how ICT is something that we see more and more of in schools. There is little anyone could do to stop that. But I am surprised how little ICT seems to be a factor in the schools. At least according to him.
The report "Personalistion and Digital technologies" says that that "by the age of 21 the average person will have spent 15,000 hours
in formal education, 20,000 hours in front of the TV, and 50,000 hours in front of
a computer screen". That is a lot!
There are no such reports for Norwegians in specific, but I did find a report that said that 94% of us have access to a computer and 93% of us have access to the Internet in one form or another. Also a lot!
Another report suggests that only 2% of young people aged 9-16 do not have access to a computer, and only 1% do not have access to the Internet. The same report goes on to explain that the majority of the time online is spent playing games, watching movies, chat and social media. 56% of these young people use the Internet for educational purposes.
All these reports seem to suggest one thing: We use the computer and Internet. A lot.
We all know that with Kunnskapsløftet, we got another "basic skill" if we can call it that. The pupils are now supposed to use digital tools in all subjects. ICT is not something that is "new" in school. I am sure you have all been to the basement of a school and seen those old computers with those big "floppy" disks. They used to learn "EDB", and then for a while it was "IT". When my brother went to school he got to use computers a lot. I am only three years younger than him, and by the time I started going to the same school, the computer classes stopped for some reason.
Fast forward again to the 21st century and we see in a ITU report that ICT is not as much in use as maybe it should be. I say "should be" because if you look at the reports I mentioned earlier, it says that young people will spend way more time in front of their computer than anything else. Is it not only reasonable that the school mirrors their daily life, and that they get to use computers and the Internet for their school work, just as they prefer to use the computer for educational purposes at home?
We see on page 10-11 in the ITU report that when the computer is actually in use, it is mostly for writing in Norwegian. In 7th grade, 31% say that they use the computer for writing in an average week. In 9th grade the number is higher, 37%. For reading in Norwegian using the computer the numbers are 24% for 7th graders and 22% for 9th graders.
For mathetmatics, on an average weekly basis a only 17% of 7th graders will use the computer, and for 9th graders the number is 14.3%. For science the number is 20% and 22.5%, and for english the numbers are 22% and 23.9%.
I find that those numbers are lower than I expected. Especially when the same ITU report goes on to explain that Norway is actually one of the leading countries in computers per student.
Erstad goes on to explain that on average, the teacher will spend more time in fromt of the computer at the school than the pupils. And when the teacher uses the computer, it is not incorporated in to the actual teaching, but mostly for their own preparation.
I think that this may be a sign of a lack of digital literacy. Do the teachers not know how to use ICT for teaching purposes? Do they just prefer the old method of teaching by using the blackboard?
How much do you let your pupils use the computer in class?
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