Dear Tonje Brenna. You recently opened the doors to the Facebook movement “Call for less screen use in primary schools”. A group of random people and a couple of celebrities, who have some idea of what digitization in schools is, and have found that they don’t like it. These people are outraged by the use of screens in school, and demand action. Well, they should be allowed to do that. I still wish they could read up a little more about what we actually do in school before they get fired up. But then, Tonje Brenna, in the middle of this case with the media in tow, you step on the salad. In your eagerness to satisfy a few thousand Facebook users, and your hunger to score political points, you call the digitization of the last decade unconscious. Unconscious! I note that you sent a state secretary to NKUL, Norway’s largest conference for digital tools in schools, to present the Government’s new digitization strategy. The Secretary of State claimed that we had no plan! You should have been there yourself, Tonje. You should have stood there and looked beyond the assembly of passionately committed educators, ready for three intense days of learning, exchange of ideas, discussions and new acquaintances. You should have been sitting in the front row when the man behind the concept of “digital competence” in Norwegian schools and education, Morten Søby, rubbished the government’s aforementioned strategy. You should have attended the workshops on VR, AI, creative workshop and programming. You should talk to those who were there. Maybe you could learn something. About the teachers. About the profession. About the digital tools, and about the plans we have and the choices we make. You would never ever again call digitization in school unconscious! I know you were trying to score a cheap political point against the previous government when you said that. The only problem is that it was not the previous government that digitized Norwegian schools. It’s me, that. It is me and thousands of other teachers, those who train teachers, competence companies and other highly competent people in and around the school. Teachers, with several years of higher education, further and further education, who have put the digital devices into use, and developed the digital pedagogy. We have read the available research. We have practiced. We have launched new services, new apps, new pedagogy, new assessment practices. We have been working. Beinhardt. We have trained each other, we have had expertise companies visit to lift the whole team. We have learned programming and programming didactics. We have stitched together teaching, which combines digital and traditional tools. Teaching that allows students to master digital technology, while at the same time practicing oral, written and social skills, digitally and physically. We have read up on the workshop methodology. We’ve tested, rejected, developed, shared, and learned – all the way. We carried large parts of Norwegian society on our backs through the pandemic, through home education, hybrid education, cohorts and social distancing. With digital tools. Because we had learned the tools we needed, well before 2020. Social media was aglow with the engagement of teachers doing something no one had done before us, and we learned a tremendous amount. Believe me: We know very well what works and what doesn’t. We know perfectly well when to use digital tools and when not to. We listen to our students. I and thousands of my colleagues around the country are skilled class leaders, relationship builders, boundary-setters and digitally competent. We are educators. We are by no means unconscious. Then it is an honest matter that not everyone has progressed the same way. Some people do not yet master the tools optimally. For some, the pandemic, the 1:1 school and the new curriculum, LK20, hit at about the same time. There will be a lot to gape at, even for the most persistent teacher. Give them time. If you’re wondering what you can do, Tonje, the answer is not to limit our toolbox. There is no setting a clock on screen usage. The best thing you can do is to ensure that the country’s municipalities have good enough finances to not have to choose between a digital unit and a full library. We must be able to afford to keep up to date with the necessary equipment and licenses on our digital devices. We must have access to printed subject books, notebooks, musical instruments, sewing machines, laser cutters, microbits and robots, a rich learning hall – and not least school buildings with proper classrooms and highly trained staff. Then I will promise you that we will take care of the rest. Digitization in schools is not about either or, but both. For a little insight into what a Norwegian school actually looks like, take a trip to Twitter and check the subject tag #mittklasserom, where teachers across the country show how they work – with and without digital tools. ALSO READ:
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