. Skeptics are so 70s.

My own daughter is all over the internet, very independent, but very spoiled in comparison. The difference is not the quality of the machine, more that one child’s family has little background in technology. It’s easy to forget the ‘digital divide’, and that there are massive equity issues in using technology with students from the outset. Simply allowing a laptop to leave school immediately causes problems.

It blows my mind that some schools are dripping in technology and support – and that others are supposed to deliver a National Curriculum which is billed as fairer. For example, a kid who has to hand-score their music project for the HSC, or use free-ware, cheap-ware is at a significant disadvantage if another kid has top-end Apple-ware that score’s it for them. Even if it saves the kid an hour, it’s still an hour of work. Equally, how is a teacher supposed to attain the same level of knowledge and skill in that application, and how is the support system supposed to match both expectations.

All this BYOD and 1:1 stuff looks good in the media, and has in some instances put technology into homes that otherwise would have none, but I have said for a long time – that computing is still a science, not a consumer right, or social-pill, and today’s computer lab has been in decay for years, both in terms of gear, and the curriculum that is supposedly teaching modern computing skills and knowledge.

Personally, as a parent, I have zero expectation that school will even attempt to give my kids the ‘knowing’ needed, let alone deliver it. I’m cool with that though, what I’m not cool with are teachers who fail to engage them with the traditional, more effective tools that they are apparently experts in. Ironically they seem to have no problem using Real Estate.com, looking up cheap flights, or buying things on eBay – or bombarding the HelpDesk with the same question over and over.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Keep them coming. This is an important issue.

The staffing limitations of the HelpDesk and the proliferation of more devices requiring support means that schools will have to rely on funding local support or the systems will grind to a halt, even with the benefits of Managed Servers, etc. As for the traditional hard-working Computer Co-Ordinator, I cannot imagine how he/she gets through the day as a teacher with all the other stuff getting thrown in the air.

If IT can’t deliver shared calendars, cloud based storage/backup and effective team communications like microblogging, then end-users will simply jump into Google Calendar, Dropbox and Yammer. Then you have to ask, “who are IT?” and “what do they offer?”

Great post Stu.

I suspect that we need more leaders telling effective stories about what we are trying to do in education. There are so many mixed messages that many cannot see a way forward.

I believe we need a philosophy that supports personalised learning and expects individuals to collaborate re: all manner of solutions. The technology must support this ideal of individualised growth. One size does not fit all. Pre-service training for teachers does not appear to be addressing these issues at all or even 1:1 laptop learning effectively. How many of the instructors at university have 1:1 experience or even a history of integrating technology into the classroom?

The Big System approaches to curriculum, assessment and accountability continue to grow and alienate many young learners. The past (pen and paper exams and factory models) reverberates in a present that makes schooling look very anachronistic. I suspect that a nation-wide analysis of absenteeism would reveal some disturbing trends.

An aside: some say that third party providers will be increasingly locked out after the LMBR is finished and the centralisation will be complete.