Dan Haesler looks at the increasing role of technology in classrooms.
At the start of this year, 7000 school students in Miami took a maths course delivered entirely by computer. Instead of a teacher, the only adult in the room was a ''facilitator'' who dealt with technical problems and ensured students remained on task.
Labor's Digital Education Revolution (DER) ensures every year 9 student in Australia gets a laptop so could Australian classrooms one day resemble those in Miami? And are teachers now an endangered species?
Not according to best-selling author and psychologist Steve Biddulph, who is passionately opposed to computers replacing teachers. ''Learning is mediated by role-modelling and emotions are a huge part of all learning and all information processing,'' he says.
Advertisement: Story continues below
As evidence, Biddulph regularly cites the emerging work in the area of ''mirror neurons'' - brain cells that enable us to imitate and empathise with what others are doing and feeling. ''Students visually map their teachers' attitudes, facial and postural, and in other ways, into the way they learn from them,'' he says. ''Students don't learn a subject in isolation - they learn in terms of their teachers' enthusiasm, caution, intensity, focus, playfulness, awe, challenge, annoyance and so on - relative to maths, poetry, science [and] economics.''
Biddulph acknowledges some writers of textbooks and online courses manage to inject their personalities into their work, making learning more fun and interesting, but he suspects ''learning from books and screens rapidly palls without this human content''.
The executive director of schools for the diocese of Parramatta, Greg Whitby, is an advocate for increasing technology in schools as a powerful tool for learning and teaching. He says the traditional way of schooling is ''no longer relevant''.
Whitby, a member of the Digital Education Advisory Group, which provides the federal government with advice on transforming schools through technology, agrees in part with Biddulph but says it isn't a question of whether to replace teachers with computers.
''Far from it - we need better teachers now than we've ever needed before,'' he says.
''But teaching today is different to teaching 10, 15, 20 years ago. We need to realise technology has a vital role to play in education, for both students and teachers.''
Whitby, an avid blogger and Twitter user, talks of a virtual classroom, where ''masterclasses'' featuring the best teaching can be delivered via a podcast, distributed via Twitter or reflected on in professional learning blogs.
''The key to improving education is for school leaders to empower their teaching staff by providing the possibility for the teachers to scrutinise, share, collaborate and reflect on effective pedagogy on a regular basis,'' he says. ''Technology gives us the opportunity to do this in a way never before possible.''
According to a federal government report in 2008, the average age of teachers in Australia is 43. A professor of teacher education at the University of Sydney, Robyn Ewing, believes this is a barrier to the effective use of technology in education.
''The fact that many teachers have not grown up with this technology means they lack the skills or the knowledge to really engage with it,'' Ewing says.
''This is compounded by the demand for ongoing professional development in [information and communication technology] - and education in general - far exceeding the supply.''
According to Ewing, schools aren't alone in struggling to implement technology effectively into their teaching; universities are also playing catch-up. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports the Australian government spends less on tertiary education than most developed countries, she says. ''Lack of funding means that, at times, we're teaching pre-service teachers in classrooms without a wi-fi connection or interactive whiteboard. That's not to say these things are essential but they are now commonplace in schools and yet we can't offer the same resources in our teacher-training institutions.''
A professional learning and curriculum support project officer with the Education Department, Ben Jones, is well aware of the challenges teachers of all ages face in integrating technology in the classroom. His role is to support the implementation of the DER across schools in NSW.
''Learning is now fundamentally different to the learning we experienced as students and the learning that our teacher training prepared us for,'' Jones says.
With this in mind, he and his team convened the 1:1 Unconference, a professional teacher-training day with a difference, in June. ''In the build-up to the Unconference, a survey was sent to all 250 participants to gather data on how they like to learn, what they could contribute to others' learning and what they wanted to learn,'' he says.
''From the survey results, we were able to design an integrated learning experience encompassing virtual environments, physical learning spaces, learning design, communications and a personal professional learning portfolio for reflection.''
In a shift from the traditional format, there were no keynote speakers and every participant was encouraged to learn or lead as they felt comfortable.
Jones says the feedback was fantastic. ''Ninety per cent said the Unconference would improve their level of teaching and learning technology innovation in their classroom.''
For those who haven't attended any formal training days, Jones suggests: ''The best step teachers can take to increase their informal professional development is to expand their networks. They can join a range of social networks, including Edmodo, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. [The NSW Department of Education] has an internal microblogging and wiki service that teachers can connect and share on called Maang. We have found that Maang has been an important step for teachers discovering the broader and globally connected teacher communities on mainstream social networks.''
Liam Dunphy is a teacher who has embraced social media. The teaching and learning technologies
co-ordinator at St Augustine's College, Sydney, Dunphy has taken responsibility for his own professional development by collaborating with teachers internationally. During the past two years, he has built a Professional Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter.
''My PLN is made up of like-minded people from all over the world,'' he says. ''We willingly share our thoughts, experiences and recommendations of what works well or, in some cases, not so well in our classroom.''
Dunphy has also established a network that enables students from different countries to collaborate. ''When you tell year 5 students that their project in which they have to advertise Australia to potential immigrants is actually going to be seen and evaluated by year 5 students in America, they are very keen to make sure they do it as well as they can.''
The students from the US and St Augustine's then chatted via Skype about the project.
That meant the students had to come to school outside normal class hours but, as Dunphy says, ''The kids came without exception because the learning was authentic and all the time they were building relationships, which is at the heart of education.''
For teachers wary of introducing technology because they fear the students may know more than them, Dunphy has advice.
''If a student can show you how to do something, embrace that opportunity to role-model what it is to be a lifelong learner. If you're worried that your knowledge of technology isn't up to scratch, then be proactive. Get online. Join Twitter. Join a PLN. Take small steps. Technology will never replace a good teacher - but it can certainly enhance good teaching.''

Dan Haesler is a Sydney teacher and speaker who blogs at danhaesler.com.
Get connected:
connectedclassrooms.wordpress.com
twitter.com/gregwhitby
twitter.com/benpaddlejones
twitter.com/liamdunphy
bit.ly/dernsw-sites