I first used these terms when training workshops on continuous learning in the 90s. I don’t know where they originated from, but I must have picked them up from the team of trainers I was working with at the time. So they’re not terms I’ve made up. I’m sure lots of educators use them. Here’s my take on how they’re normally used to describe people in a learning context:

• Explorers are continuous learners who actively seek new learning opportunities. They extrapolate their experience into different contexts and construct new meaning from what they find.
• Tourists will take on most new ideas, they’ll do the work they’re given, they’ll make an effort to learn. They’ll do as much as they need to get the job done if they see that it’s relevant.
• Prisoners are reluctant learners. They have habits that they can’t unlearn easily. They’ll do as their told, if forced to, but not much more – often less.

Now I also reckon that these terms are a good way to describe people’s attitudes towards technology. After all, learning to use technology is still Learning. Here’s how I’ve translated them:

• Explorers will actively seek out new technologies and constantly try to find how they’re relevant to contexts they’re familiar with. They learn how to use these tools by applying them to different situations and construct or invent relevancy. By understanding the tools and the contexts, they’ll often find solutions to problems where others can’t see that there’s a problem in the first place. They thrive on open access to technology – and they will find it, often at the expense of IT security. For them, obstacles are merely challenges to be overcome – and they don’t give up easily: they iterate.
• Tourists will appreciate how technology can improve how they do things. They’ll be open to the benefits and advantages, but they might need to be persuaded of these. For these people the tools must work first time, every time, and the benefits must be explicitly obvious and clearly relevant to their context. If all these things are in place, they’ll happily take on new technologies. Once they do, these people are powerful allies.
• Prisoners will have their own way of doing things that has always worked. They’ll see no compelling reason to change. In fact, they’ll usually find every reason not to. They’ll say, ‘technology for technology’s sake‘ when a new tech idea is tabled; and they’ll say, ‘told you so‘ when technology fails to deliver. They’ll point out the obstacles and go stand behind them.

Now you can probably guess that I like to think of myself as a bit of an explorer, but I flatter myself and I know that I’m dreaming when I compare myself to some people that I know. And in defense of prisoners, ‘prisoners’ are the barometer against which any change to the technological climate needs to be measured, and carefully if it’s to succeed. Prisoners often have a good point, they often have well-tested ways of working that get the job done. Change might indeed be a bad thing. The risks that technological ’solutions’ might bring, can often weigh against the benefits of not changing at all. So where does that leave us?

I’m a firm believer that if you give people access to technology, enough people will use it to make it worth the effort. Without open access to technology, people are handed a reason to give up, lose interest and become averse to any new technology we might wish to introduce in future. And although restricting open access because of the risk of security threats seems a common and plausibly valid corporate position, it also seems to engender a culture where prisoners can thrive – I don’t think that’s what we need.

Keith is the CEO of CoSN, the US’s premier voice in education tech leadership. click for CoSN site

Outline of the workshop:

1. what has been the impact of technology on education around the world?
2. What are the skills that ict leaders need?
3. Self assessment

Three major conclusions:

• Competitiveness is a global concern/Developing 21st century skills is necessary
• Leadership & vision matters
• Rethinking pedagogy is essential

1. Impact of tech around the world

Impact in asia (UNESCO 2003) = weak.

Europe (‘the ICT impact report’ 2006) = patchy introduction and ‘no profound improvements in learning & teaching’

UK Becta 4 yr study concluded that:

• ‘Personalized learning through technology is key route to educational improvement
• Having a high level of technology will dramatically improve performance, so long as there is the right support and enthusiasm to embrace it.’ http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=33623

Metiri group for Cisco found that tech advocates overpromised what tech could do. But when the vision was appropriate and professional development was there, tech was a “powerful and transformative tool” http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/TechnologyinSchoolsReport.pdf

Students in the US are expressing growing frustration that schools are becoming lame and irrelevant. http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup_reports.html

Keith then showed us an interesting slide on which he’d compiled some results from research carried out in Nordic countries. The slide showed a strong correlation between teachers’ beliefs in the positive impact of tech and their ability or proficiency in using it themselves. For example:

• Teachers who believed that tech had no or moderate impact on learning were the ones who made low or moderate use of tech in their classroom practice. They were also not confident in the use of ICT.
• However, teachers who believed that tech had a positive impact on learning were the ones who used it the most and were the ones who felt most confident in using it. Their use of it was ‘project oriented, collaborative and experimental’.

Although clearly important, there is still not enough emphasis on developing teachers’ skills in using tech for learning. The focus should be making educators technologically confident

ss still consumers rather than producers when using ICT not very web 2.0 or maybe use tech for presentation or internet research… most kids hate web cache content filters.

impact of ict in teaching can be measured in pupil engagement differentiation creativity and less waste of time.

2. What are the skills that ict leaders need?

Leadership is fundamental to successful tech in learning. Leaders must be:

• willing to listen and learn
• awareof role and power
• strategically us ict to leverage other initiatives

We need to show the value of investment. Instead of drawing attention to the ‘wow factor’ (over promising) look at the real long term impact and prepare people for that.

Call to action: we need to reframe the policy discussions around tech and education and look at the Value of Investment (VOI) http://www.edtechvoi.org/

..and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). http://www.classroomtco.org/

• vision: powerful tool to accomplish ed goals
• leadership: human element is key to efffectively implementing ed tech
• TCO and VOI: ed tech leaders need to understand both
• community: parent and the business community can be your biggest advocates
• advocacy: become an advocate for ICT in ed.

click for the new cio leader ten prorities and click for more

a. Core values and skills:

• students & instruction
• continual improvement
• managing innovation
• data driven decision making
• flexibility
• results
• creating value

b. CTO Essential Skills:

1. Leadership & vision
2. Planning and budgeting
3. Business Leadership
4. Team building and staffing
5. Education and Training
6. Communication systems
7. Systems management
8. Information management
9. Ethics and policies

Link to CoSN CTO Essential Skills

www.k12opentech.org

www.classroomtco.org