"How far have you school politicians come with the introduction of SAMR?" = the question all parents interested in IT should ask

I was out today 18/4 at the SETT days at Kistamässan and listened to Ruben R. Puentedura, Argentine-American researcher in modern pedagogy. He has launched a special model, SAMR (substitution-amplification-modification-redefinition), which highlights the different levels at which digital tools can develop school education (cf. picture, where the levels have been translated into Swedish). He has been following digital initiatives around the world for a couple of decades, with a particular focus on the state of Maine, which decided ten years ago that every student should have a computer ("one-to-one", in the jargon that developed).

Puentedura's research shows unequivocally that it is only when schools rise above the 'improvement' level that major improvements in performance occur. It is when teaching fundamentally changes, with elements of social and collaborative learning, and with media that have no equivalent in the analog world, that both students and teachers make great strides in developing learning.

For those with experience in the IT industry, the conclusions may seem banal, "we know" that business development is required for IT solutions to come into their own, and that a great deal of responsibility rests with the business management. However, schools are very much beginners in this area, but that does not stop us as citizens and parents from demanding that schools develop so that our children really get the skills, both digital and general, that tomorrow's labor market requires.

A first step should be to demand that everyone in the school world with a leadership role, from Jan Björklund down, should have an eagle eye on the SAMR model, with the enormous development potential it entails. We also know from the IT industry that it is a lengthy and persistent process that is required to develop the business, with frequent missteps. But that is not a reason to refrain from working towards major improvements in performance.