Getting onboard ...

Over the last couple of weeks I have presented in various venues and lectured to different groups in University education settings. The one thing that is coming over to me at the moment is that everyone listens and nods and gets enthused but I just don't detect things happening.

In a huge lecture theatre with over 250 students I noted that not one one them had a laptop or any other device switched on to take any notes (let alone Twitter) ... they all had pieces of paper to write on ... I asked them how they were going to share their thoughts with others in the room, put that did not seem to be part of their learning agenda. They had come there to listen and absorb not interact. Similarly with a largish group of ICT coordinators at a conference ... no sign of anything but the pads provided by the organisers. It was the same on a course for heads. It is as if the message of sharing/collaborating and the read/write nature of the next stage is out there but it just isn't happening.

If our training teachers and our teacher leaders don't respond and model what chances further through the system? I note that on the Naace Conference blog from Torquay that there are almost NO comments at all on any of the sessions ... even the foremost ICT educators in the country don't appear to make their thoughts known so that they can help to shape the thoughts of others. I posted a comment straight after listening to a recording of Ewan's address, and there mine sits, all on its own.

Will Richardson in a post on his blog highlights a similar issue:

I feel like it sometimes when I go to an education conference with 6,000 attendees and virtually no Internet access where almost no one who is presenting is modeling anything close to great pedagogy with technology.

He goes on:

...how in god’s name can we talk seriously about 21st Century skills for kids if we’re not talking 21st Century skills for educators first? The more I listened, the less I heard in terms of how we make the teaching profession as a whole even capable of teaching these “skills” to kids. Sure, there were mentions of upgrading teacher preparation programs and giving teachers additional time in the school day to collaborate, etc. But the URGENCY was all around the kids. Shouldn’t the URGENCY be all about the teachers right now?

Barack Obama using a quote from Dr Martin Luther King calls for the people of USA to pay attention to 'The urgency of now'. It makes a good rallying cry for the moment!

The longer it takes educators to develop their own ICT capability to support what is happening, the more young people will be leaving formal education without having been able to take advantage of the technology they deserve.

The rest of the post on Will's blog tells the story well as do the comments on the post.

In Torquay last week on Tuesday evening Ewan McIntosh said at 9:06 Don't think - try! ... we need to make a move NOW.

PS

There are now 138 comments to Will Richardson's original post and heaven knows how many people have linked into it on their own blog ... the Twitter lines have been burning.