I og med at Standard Norge og senteret for IKT i utdanningen ser på problemstillingen, så publiserer jeg avsnittet mitt fra masteroppgaven som tar opp problemstillingen knyttet til manglende standarder i skoleverket.
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Learning platforms - Usage and perceived learning effects
5.3.1 Standardization and training
Another reason that the frustration is high might be because that the learning platform is only one of many systems and that teachers work with fragmented systems. Third party content providers are important to fill up the schools’ digital tool box so to speak. This can also be a bit problematic and limit the development of a digital learning platform. In the schools of this community there are several systems that the teachers need to know in order to have all information needed and to offer pupils content.
At the time of this study the community had OPPAD, OPPAD Web, SharePoint, the Intranet (Episerver), Young Digital Planet, Vokal, PAS, GSI as well as other programs installed locally on one computer. Some are national systems like PAS and GSI, while others are bought by the local municipality.
With so many different kinds of user
interfaces it takes time for the teacher to really get to know them all and to
use it to its full extent. Sometimes they have to feed different systems with
exactly the same information. This makes the systems time consuming.
Another way to look at this is that
teachers work with fragmented systems. This makes it almost impossible to have
a full overview of the situation and it makes the value of any one system less
important. One of the great strengths of a learning platform is the possibility
to show contents from different kinds of systems, databases and content
providers. But as the content providers want to use their own user interface
the teachers is stuck on exploring different kinds of systems that they need to
use.
Other industries such as the
aviation industry have strict rules when it comes to comes to standardization
and commonality of fragmented systems. Perhaps educational programs can draw on
their experience. The vast cost and complex nature of the aviation industry
calls for strict rules in order both to keep costs down as well as making sure
pilots, flight attendants and mechanics instantly know their own procedure.
This affects both the safety of an airliner as well as adding value to the
bottom line. Wouldn’t these principal be the same for education? If systems
were instantly recognizable and everyone knew exactly how it worked there would
be more time for education and less time understanding all the systems.
There is no coincidence that the
aviation industry is one of the main contributors for standard e-learning
content through the organization AICC. AICC is a short for Aviation Industry Computer-Based
Training Committee. AICC was formed to address airline concerns about
non-standard computing cost in relation to multimedia training. This standard
has also been beneficial for learning platforms.
When an emergency appears in
aviation, the pilots are trained to handle this specific incident without
wondering how the cockpit in front of them works. They reach for the right
system automatically. This intense focus on training has reduced the risk of flying
to a minimum. If a pilot switches to another airplane type, it is required that
the pilot has enough training on the new type. This is in contrast with how the
teachers have to work with several ICT systems, sometimes without proper
training. The user interfaces are very different and the teacher is expected to
understand them sometimes without proper training.
It would be reasonable to compare
the pilots’ cockpit to the teachers’ systems. All systems could be compared to
a cockpit. While in the aviation industry the pilot needs strict training to
use one cockpit interface, the teacher is offered limited training and uses
much time to fully understand every component.
When Airbus launched their new
digital fly by wire cockpit, one of the highlights was that the same cockpit
could be used for a plane with 100 passengers as well as a larger one with
several hundred passengers. This drastically reduced the need for retraining
pilots and flight attendants. It helped Airbus gain more than 50% of large commercial
airplane market. Many airlines that have not been focused on keeping their
fleet simple end up getting bankrupt.
In public schools no one gets
bankrupt. Few understand the complexity of the systems that the teachers are
required to learn. Since public schools in Norway are not actively monitoring
how much time is needed for understanding a system in detail, no one seems to
fully know how much resources and time are going into this. All systems are
complex. It takes time to fully understand them and some of the systems require
that the teacher do the same reporting more than once. Effectiveness of
training and the standardization of systems should be researched more
extensively, as more systems are forced upon teachers.
The last section regarding fragmented
systems brings up another important question: Are resources stretched too thin
in public schools?
Public schools in Norway use a lot
of money on ICT, so this part is not a discussion about whether enough money is
spent on software and hardware or not. The central question concerns human
resources and whether or not the money is spent in the best possible way.
When it comes to human resources,
there are many tasks for the teacher to address. The schools generally have a
limited focus on how much training is needed to implement a new system. How
much time is needed each week to maintain a minimum knowhow of each system?
For each system that is acquired,
more time will be needed in order to have a minimum level of knowhow of the
system. Decision makers and the management at each school need to understand
this complexity.
This raises another important
question: What about implementation? Could it be possible to merge all systems
into one user-interface? That would really simplify the training needs, as well
as reduce the time needed to maintain a certain degree of knowledge. In some
areas the School Management System (SMS) and Learning Management systems are
merged, so that for the teacher it looks like both the SMS and LMS is one
product. In this community they are not merged, but the SMS creates user
accounts, gives them permissions and makes sure the student, teacher and parent
are interconnected and registered at the correct places in the Active Directory
(AD). So this learning platform is very dependent on correct information in the
SMS.
To date 430 municipalities and all
public schools are bound by the same Education act. But there is still little
binding cooperation among these 430 municipalities. The Norwegian Directorate
for Education and Training has until now had a very conservative approach when
it comes to obliging the public schools. This has meant that there is a slow
process of integrating new tools and there are few standards for education that
public schools can follow.
Standardization of tools used in
schools is not just a national challenge. It is a global challenge. As noted
earlier, the aviation industry has played at huge part in developing standards
for e-learning content. Others who have contributed to standards for web based
e-learning is the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) with the ADL initiative that
resulted in the Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). Others
standards are IMS, IEEE and Ariadne. All these standards help e-learning
content, and that is great for LMS. But
e-learning content is only one part of the puzzle.
The rest of the information that
teachers produce in order to keep track of their pupils, is not subject to any
international standards. Regarding standardization, the public schools are too
small to mandate one standard alone. The only standard that might be used in
Norway is the Noark standard. This standard is used to archive data in Norway.
Some schools have been using this to archive sensitive data in schools. But
archive systems are usually a very complex and time consuming exercise.
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