En un reciente artículo (ver referencia bibliográfica al final) publicado en Technology, Pedagogy and Education se presentan los resultados de un estudio etnográfico sobre el uso de las TIC en una escuela británica. Gabriel Reedy, el autor, pasó seis meses en el centro, yendo a las clases, hablando con profesores y alumnos, asisitiendo a reuniones, etc. El estudio hace hincapié en el uso de las tecnologías audivisuales, especialmente de las pizarras interactivas. Dice el autor en la introducción:
Perhaps it is not surprising that the personal computer revolution and the succeeding generation of technological innovations spawned a new line of visual tools for classroom use, most notably the interactive whiteboard.
Más adelante expone:
Perhaps the corollary to this is that since the primary ICT tool in the classroom is the projector, teachers seem naturally to focus their ICT efforts on presenting information to students.
…
However, what is most interesting about the way these technologies worked together at Aylmer [el nombre del centro] is that they seemed to contribute to a sense of teaching and learning as being fundamentally presentational in nature: to teach was to put up PowerPoint or similar slides on the data projector or IWB [pizarras interactivas], and to learn was to observe them.
…
Every new technology, teaching tool, or pedagogical innovation – however small – necessarily has some impact on how classroom teachers do their work. If classroom teachers are changing their practice, it stands to reason that the learning experience of students may also be impacted. A number of features seemed to distinguish teaching and learning at Aylmer. In particular, these are problems, issues, and benefits that arise as a result of the high use of visual technologies such as PowerPoint and IWBs.
En las conclusiones del estudio el autor señala algunas ideas que merecen consideración. El Reino Unido nos lleva bastante ventaja en en uso de las TIC en educación y en la dotación de pizarras interactivas en los centros docentes. Pero nuestras autoridades educativas (en algunos sitios, al menos) han decidido dotar masivamente nuestras aulas con dicha tecnología. Quizá sería conveniente reflexionar sobre aspectos como los que señala el autor del estudio:
– Visual technologies may be conflated in the minds of students and teachers... PowerPoint, the IWB (software and hardware), the controlling computer, and the data projector are often conflated. Together they enable whole-class presentation of information, and the nuances of the various tools are often lost.
– The PowerPoint mindset may be problematic to teaching and learning… In many cases, PowerPoint has become the tool of choice for teaching and learning – at Aylmer, many teachers think of PowerPoint as synonymous with ICT – even though both students and teachers recognise that it can potentially discourage complex thinking, reasoning, and writing, and can encourage pointless animation and ostentation.
– Visual technologies may imply a certain type of classroom teaching. Visual technologies, though hailed as innovations to improve classroom teaching, may sometimes limit classroom discourse and focus activity on the teacher as the presenter of information.
– Policy has a significant impact on the classroom use of visual technologies. A series of policy decisions led to the implementation of the particular technologies in use at Aylmer. Staff were not provided with explicit skills training in how to use the new technologies… In many cases, the IWBs were used as a traditional whiteboard; none of the interactive features were used at all. The policy decisions to enforce the primacy of the limited-functionality IWB over the traditional board led to some teachers rejecting the technologies altogether.
(Reedy, Gabriel B. (2008) ‘PowerPoint, interactive whiteboards, and the visual culture of technology in schools’, Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 17:2, 143 — 162
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14759390802098623
¿Suenan familares las conclusiones?