Dissapointed....

Yesterday I attended the "Future of ICT In New Zealand Schools" symposium, and it was unfortunately a real let down. I'd only found out about it the day before and was excited at the prospect of attending something with such a grand title. I took along one our ICT lead teachers and chatting with her and others afterwards, there was a definite feeling of confusion and that we had been a tad mislead by the title.

What the symposium turned out to be, was the launch of the new online version of the 'Computers in New Zealand Schools' journal (which in itself looks really good by the way). This was preceeded by a rambling presentation by Ed Strafford from the MOE on..... well, none of us were really sure what it was on actually (Sorry Ed...). There was then a panel presentation by three speakers, including Niki Davis, who I had heard before at U-Learn. Although there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the presentations and subsequent discussions, it just didn't all gel together and (comment if I'm wrong), most people left feeling a little dazed and confused. No fault of the speakers I think, more the organisation of it all perhaps.

2 things that stuck out in my mind were 1) Too many of the presentations I have seen by people from the MOE are badly organized 2) I am always amazed at the number of people involved in ICT that still use pen and paper for taking notes....

I did join the e-learning research network, which looks excellent, and I remain positive that what we are doing in our school with ICT is on the right track. I just feel a little deflated. I spend my days trying to help our staff understand the benefits of deep integration of ICT into their teaching, and often find myself defending technology to the naysayers. Sometimes though, I wonder if they are right....

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