The art of attraction

Intro ICT use by teachers and trainers within the VET sector is diverse and uneven, writes Lucas Walsh. Talk about "new media" to many academics and e-learning practitioners and you will often get the response, "But this new media is no longer new". Talk to many young people about cyberspace or cyber-anything and you might be rebuffed for sounding out of touch. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) for personal purposes is now common - even for the disadvantaged. Recent Nielson research indicates 90 per cent of people aged 16 to 29 use the internet daily. Eighty-three per cent of the young use social networking services regularly. Such is the ubiquity of ICT that divisions between the material and online worlds have, for many young people, melted away. Yet significant gaps in knowledge and practice remain as to how ICT can best be used to engage disengaged learners. While emergent developments in ICT offer opportunities to engage or re-engage young learners and improve their learning outcomes, certain barriers inhibit the development of good practice. Forthcoming research by the Foundation for Young Australians and the Inspire Foundation, on behalf of the national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, has identified challenges and opportunities for policy-makers, practitioners and young people seeking to maximise the benefits of using ICT to engage learners in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector. Research that includes a literature review, national consultations and interviews with young VET learners, policy-makers and practitioners across the VET sector has found that ICT use by teachers and trainers within the VET sector is diverse and highly uneven. VET practitioners differ widely in levels of knowledge, skill and comfort in the use of ICT to improve the engagement and achievement of young learners. Some are very creative, experimental and innovative in their use. Others struggle with ICT, or use it tokenistic ways. This can be due to lack of professional learning to build the ICT skills, or exposure to effective models of practice. Many practitioners face the challenge of lack of access to technical support, up-to-date equipment and applications. This uneven usage by practitioners contrasts with the usage of technology by young people, who increasingly expect ICT to play a central role in daily learning and life in general. Young people learning through VET are diverse in their needs and circumstances. Many who face heightened risk of disengagement experience challenges ranging from disability to geographical remoteness, socioeconomic disadvantage, or are people for whom English is not their first language. The "digital divide" continues to be a barrier to many young learners. Yet despite widespread ICT use by young people, the evidence also suggests notions of "‘digital natives" surpassing their teachers in digital literacy are, at times, simply untrue. Consequently, broad generalisations and assumptions about young people’s technological access and ease of ICT use can be counter-productive in the design of learning. The diverse needs and challenges faced by the most disengaged learners highlights the basic fact that a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective in engaging all young people. Educational goals need to drive the use of technology. Further, the use of ICT should not be used to replicate practice that already works in face-to-face environments, nor replicate conventional paper-based approaches without a core need. The multimedia and interactive functions of web 2.0 and mobile telephony are far from fully used. To improve engagement, ICT can be used to promote a tailored and learner-centred pedagogy based upon the current use of technology by young people. These platforms, applications and tools enable the creation of relevant and conveniently accessible content, and opportunities for collaborative learning, rich content, as well as interactivity among learners and between learners and practitioners. They can connect learners to the world beyond the classroom or conventional learning settings. The evidence suggests that these approaches have a direct and positive effect on the engagement and retention of young learners. At a broader level, the right policy and level of investment needs to be in place to enable these to develop. Twenty-first century education and training is characterised by learner-centred, technologically rich pedagogical frameworks that improve retention and learning outcomes of all young people. VET policy cannot assume equality of access, nor can it assume uniform levels of ICT competency. It needs to reflect the diversity of young people and their need for flexible learning opportunities across a range of settings. This will increasingly demand learning environments that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It enables young people to learn across contexts and at different levels and paces. Organisational leaders play a central role in the effective implementation of ICT in the VET sector, and ideally should promote and reflect this flexibility in their institutional policies and codes of conduct in teaching, learning and assessment. Staff need continuing professional development to equip them with technical skills and support to better understand the role of ICT in young people’s everyday lives. Practical examples of good practice are useful. These could take the form of engaging resources, personal learning plans in ICT, and mentoring. Innovation needs to be recognised, shared and rewarded. The basic foundation for all of this is affordable, high-speed connectivity. In this regard, the National Broadband Network has the potential to greatly enhance access to resources and online training, particularly for regional and remote VET providers. ICT offers enormous benefits to the sheer diversity of young people learning through VET. Research like this and the excellent work of practitioners throughout Australia highlights these benefits, and yet despite its ubiquity, we still have a lot to learn about using ICT to engage disengaged learners. The final report on “The role of technology in engaging disengaged youth” will be available from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s website in July at http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/ Dr Lucas Walsh is director of research and evaluation at the Foundation for Young Australians