My brother is head of ICT at a British school. I’ve been bugging him about this technology as a learning tool for months. He gets it. This is what he had to say to me over Skype about a recent Cisco presentation:
I went to CISCO systems gig the other day – oh boy… dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. Inappropriate PowerPoints, speaker reading scripts, hard sell on useless learning platforms and hey, whadyaknow – they don’t quite know how to assess the compulsory tests that are being introduced next year
When you’ve stopped laughing at this incredible amount of cluelessness, think about the waste of time, effort and money that’s been incurred here.
- What would have been wrong in organising a webcast that could be downloaded for later use if needs be?
- How about finding out what these people already know and what they want to know before pitching them?
- Do you honestly think you can bullshit professionals when you don’t know the basics yourself? C’mon – get vertical here. Learn the lingo. Understand the issues. Read their blogs.
Education in the UK is already at a decent standard compared to Silicon Valley. Think what more could be achieved if professionals were to offer their services, be part of the community, interact with schools on local interest. The list goes on.
This is how my brother reports on the Q&A:
Even more depressing was question to the gal who heads up ICT:
Q: ‘Tell me when are exams gonna be made relevant? In the front of the specifications it urges all teachers to keep abreast of the technology. Why should we? Exam papers that will be sat in 2006 were specified in 2003… there will be no questions about blogs, pod casting or emerging technologies. When is the syllabus going to be made relevent to their experience?’
A: ‘That’s a good point… any more questions?’
Clueful answer:
The technologies we’re talking about are the tools by which children learn now and into the future. They allow those same children to access a global store of free knowledge and information they can share and through which they can enhance their learning. They take time, effort and expense out of the learning process while at the same time teaching our children how to interact with others Though this may be in a virtual, almost artificial way, we are finding that those virtual relationships turn into real, person to person relationships that start from a point of mutual understanding and respect. As an aside, we believe they help reduce the time our children spend receiving the bulk of their world view education from televised soap operas. We think those are very positive things that enrich the learning experience.
UPDATE:
They should hire James Governor to do the delarative living thing and to smack ;em over the head with his particular brand of clue-stuff
They should hire Tom Raftery to bring ‘em up to speed on podcasting – hint – Tom’s that good that even though he’s Mac fanboy, Microsoft hire him to help them understand the world.
Go over to ScobleShow – this is how NOT to do it. If you don’t agree then fine. Sorry Robert, I find it dull. For those that don’t know, Robert is one of the very best bloggers on the planet.
They should hire my brother because he know ICT education – period. And he’s prepared to speak out. Watch for more on this.
If any of this involves ICT spend on a regional basis then they should hire Vinnie to negotiate the deal as it’s bound to involve IBM or some such.
