Debate: Principals must take the lead on digitalization
We agree with Spotify's founder that programming should be made compulsory in schools. However, it is only one building block among many in developing the digital skills of the future workforce. It is much more important that schools embrace the opportunities of digitalization on a broad front. And this is where headteachers have a key role to play, writes IT&Telecom's Anne-Marie Fransson together with a long list of CEOs and representatives of our members.
It's a bright June day in 2019. 15-year-old Saanvi is cycling to school in a city in central Sweden. Her family moved here from India a year earlier. The semester is almost over, and she is happy about her progress. With the Skola-for-everyone-from-the-first-day language tool, the Khan Academy courses in the math and science subjects she's done at home, and the monitoring of her learning via DigiLys, she's both catching up and overtaking her Swedish peers.
In the hallway, she meets Kim, her new math and programming teacher, who she smiles at warmly. However, she misses her predecessor, Alex, because as a recent graduate, Kim has none of the skills in various digital tools that Alex used. Neither do many other teachers in the school. Her friend Tindra in the parallel class, for example, has not been allowed to use Khan Academy, DigiLys or any other tool for her learning.
She sits down at her desk and looks out at the flowering lilacs. It's all about luck and getting the right teacher, she thinks. And Saanvi has been lucky.
What do we want to say with this story?
- Very powerful digital tools for learning already exist today.
- In 2019, there will still be many teachers who have not mastered these tools, and many headteachers who are not broadly, structurally and purposefully driving change to make the tools a natural part of teaching.
In an open letter on April 11, Spotify founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon argued that programming must become compulsory in schools. As representatives of companies where digitization is the foundation of our business, we obviously agree. However, introducing programming is only one building block among many in developing the digital skills of the future workforce. It is much more important that schools embrace the opportunities of digitalization on a broad front, in all subjects and at all levels. And head teachers have a key role to play here.
What do we want to achieve?
- Digital tools and practices become as much a part of education as they are in the rest of society.
- Students feel that the digital environment at school matches the one they encounter in their free time, and that teaching equips them for a modern, digitalized working life, rather than the opposite.
- That we have a teaching force that is trained to teach with digitally based tools and methods, and school leaders who recognize their role as change leaders and not just as curriculum administrators.
How do we achieve this? The Swedish National Agency for Education has recently presented a proposal for a national strategy for the school system, which highlights the need for both school leaders and teachers to improve their digital skills in an exemplary way. However, the change cannot be made top-down but must come from within the schools themselves.
However, what can be done centrally is the following:
- Clearly point out the direction of travel, that change work linked to digitization is not something that can be chosen.
- Give principals the time they need to drive change.
- Embedding digitally-based teaching methods as a natural part of teacher training, and change management linked to digital methods as an equally natural part of head teacher training.
- Create collaborative forums for exchange among school leaders, and between school leaders, teachers, students and the digitalized world.
As for the third point, it is nothing short of a scandal that, in 2016, we do not have the use of digital tools as an integral part of teacher training. It is not included in the degree objectives, and none of the teacher education programs work with it in a structured and thorough way. It is equally bad that change work with digital tools does not have a greater place in the national headteacher training. The scenario that in 2019 we will still have a large proportion of teachers and principals who are - to be blunt - digitally incompetent is therefore not at all out of the blue.
On the fourth point, we from the digital industries are happy to help, and we have submitted a list to Skolverket of activities we can contribute with: Networks, commissioned trainings, workshops, etc.
We don't want to make threats, we want to grow in Sweden. However, in order for us to get the skilled workforce we need, we need a major upgrade of digital skills throughout the school system, and we want to contribute.
Johan Rittner, CEO, IBM Sweden
Pär Fors, CEO CGI Sweden
Per Johanson, CEO Tieto Sweden
Carl-Johan Hultenheim, CEO Atea Sweden
Stefan Bergdahl, CEO HP PPS Sweden
Joke Palmkvist, Head of School and Higher Education, Microsoft Sweden
Leyla Schreiber, CEO One Agency
Ola Källgården, CEO Olingo Consulting
Carl-Johan Hamilton, CEO of Ants and Chairman of the IT&Telecom Companies' IT Skills Council
Anne-Marie Fransson, Director of the IT&Telecom Confederation