“Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth”
What was striking about Archimedes (the Greek Mathematician, Engineer, Inventor, Physicist and Astronomer) was his uncanny ability to solve many of his city’s challenges. One of his solutions to moving or lifting heavy objects was to design a block and tackle pulley system. This device was based on his extensive work on levers. A lever is any device (e.g rigid bar) which can be pivoted about a fulcrum so that minimum effort can be applied to gain the maximum effect. This is called mechanical advantage (load/effort). Archimedes used mechanical advantage to good effect and was quoted as saying : "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth."
Equate curriculum delivery to being a load. Is it possible that ICT is the lever? How much effort do we have to put in to gain “mechanical advantage”? Which form of ICT will be the appropriate lever to move curriculum delivery along?
If ICT is the answer to our challenges, isn’t it time to shout “Eureka”?
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2 comments:
Is it "the lever?" No, not on its own. The learner and his circumstances are critical to how the curriculum is delivered, accepted and experienced. The lever turns around this critical component - the fulcrum as it were.
Another pivotal component is adequate teacher-training. Space (outside of a normal teaching day) should be created for teachers to engage with ICT. I think that it is expecting too much for teachers to go from the days work into a post- working day training session. If incentivised, the response may be more positive.
But on the positive side, I have sat in on many lessons where educators integrate ICT and in every case the interest of the learners has been sparked. So, if Khanya is addressing the lever (ICT), who is addressing the needs of the fulcrum (teachers and learners)?
It seems as if the most unmovable object is the teacher - the challenge will therefore be to find the right lever to get educators moving! Only then will learners benefit from the value of ICT.
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