My Brain Hurts

Another ITSC has come and gone, round 2 for the new location at UTS Sydney. Having everyone in the same location this year worked well as did utilising the cafe area for food time. Wollongong Uni was a great location but UTS is far more convenient to get to and accessible to more accommodation and entertainment options. I thought bowling was going to be real dud but it was a great night, thoroughly enjoyed by all. Cocktails the following night was scrumptious with a great band but a little too loud (am I getting old here?).

It is easy to come away enthused and fired up to change the world, hopefully people will be returning to school environments receptive to the new knowledge returning.

Stephanie Hamilton’s opening keynote again provided much food for thought. Her student’s analogy that school was like an airline flight was very apt “Sit down, face forward, buckle up and turn off all electronic devices” and “if you are lucky the trip may be relevant”. Blitto’s blog has a detailed description of her main points. iTunes U is now up and running, although it is very University oriented. Browse over to the University of Florida’s Teacher Education section where they have some excellent K-12 podcasts available.

The feedback on the workshops was very positive as they catered well for the needs of the participants. It was great just getting to know people and picking up little ideas by talking to them about how their school operates.

The keynote to close the 3 day section was by Peter Sheahan, this bloke could talk under water for 10 minutes – even after he had already drowned. Very energetic and coming from teh business sector he provided an interesting point of view. He gave his view of the requirements of the classroom of the future – relevant, interactive, expansive and connected. Students need boundaries but their education needs freedom within those boundaries. He told an interesting tale of a confrontation he had with an employee, neither would give because both were right leading to a poor result for both sides. It is not a case of who is right or wrong but what is the most useful solution to the situation. That thought could apply a lot to our daily school existence.

The one day event was opened by Mike Anderson from NZ who entertained the crowd with his interesting perspective on ICT curriculum integration. His final points about overreacting by banning technology were quite interesting. If children verbally abuse others in the playground we don’t ban talking. We don’t put padlocks and passwords on books and desks. Yet we ban and limit access to highly useful digital tools.

In all a very stimulating conference, great to catch up with old acquaintances and puts some names to faces from the MacEd list. Also good to see Blitto do something besides FCP – perhaps a leopard can change its spots?

Time Magazine has just awarded the iPhone this honour made more special by the list of inventions that were beaten into second place. I was lucky enough to be in Miami when the iPhone was released and hogged the use of one in an Apple store for an hour exploring the iPhone’s features (it won’t be seen in Australia until sometime in 2008). It really is quite an amazing piece of technology. As I left the store I realised that I had been so engrossed in its many features that I had not tried to make a phone call on it!

Time liked the look and feel of it, the fact that it will set a standard for other phones, that it is far more than a phone and that it can only get better (think about how the iPod has developed).

The iPhone sets new ground in digital convergence by packing so any features in such a small device and could really become a seriously useful educational tool. Based on the This Day in History widget, the good folk at MacKiev have created a version that runs on your iPhone. This is a step from running World Book on the iPhone which is a step away from using it as a powerful reference tool apart from its wen browsing capability. It has the potential to become the first truly educationally useful handheld computer.

In another development the article also mentions that last month Apple opened up the iPhone to anyone who wants to develop apps for it. Watch the iPhone take off like podcasting.

These words were uttered to me today by a friend who only uses PCs. For a long time I have used both a Mac and a PC, nowdays its an Intel Macbook that runs both so at least I only need one computer. I really wouldn’t like to be without both as each has its own advantages, but if I had to make a choice the wonderful creativeness of the Mac and it’s associated software wins hands down. But this is not about me.

My friend’s statement referred to his wife who also has a PC only background but was issued with a Mac by her school earlier this year. He stated that “She had put it in the cupboard and left it there, having only used it about twice. So much for the user friendliness of the Mac”.

The Mac vs PC thing is really boring so let’s not go there as this is not about that.

The real issue here however is an all to familiar one in education. Lots of money spent on the technology and precious little on staff training.

I know that she has had bugger all PD on how to use her new Mac. Teachers are incredibly busy so unless they have a real techno drive they are not going to invest the necessary time required to learn something new. A person can not become an instant expert on a new machine after only limited exposure.

Has she been shown the basics of using it? Has she been shown the way it uses Word, Powerpoint, Excel and the Internet exactly the same way her PC does? Has she been shown the highly creative iLife suite of programs preloaded on it? Has anyone shown her how simple it is to create and publish really high quality podcasts with GarageBand? Widgets anyone? Or how easily a class lesson can come alive using Comic Life? The inbuilt camera, ichat, webcams or downloading podcasts and organising audio and video content via iTunes? How to download a file from uTube to use in class, converting video formats with iSquint? Has she been exposed to the wonders of Google Earth? How easily files can be dragged and dropped into other applications or the wonderful level of interactivity between various programs? What about the use of virtual worlds? etc, etc, etc

I doubt that she has been made aware of any of this.

In reality she has been given a Ferrari and all she has been shown how to do is to put on the parking brake. Given the above situation I’d probably put it in the cupboard as well.

It’s been stated by many people many times over that for every $ spent on technology a $ needs to be spent on training. Some schools and districts have wonderfully supportive PD networks, but some others . . . . . .