I was invited recently to a roundtable discussion on technology in education, unfortunately I was unable to attend however they sent me this video and I’m pretty blown away with some of the content. If this is the future then I’m pretty glad that Erin is the age she is now. Well worth a look for any parents interested in education.
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Call me cynical but our kids don’t have a bat’s chance in hell of seeing a classroom like that. Probably the most cutting edge school in Scotland is Islay High School with a wireless network and a netbook per pupil and it’s taken 25 years to get from a PC in the classroom to that stage. And that is the ONLY school in Scotland that has 1-2-1 technology.
You’ll soon get a GLOW ID and a taste of the reality of technology in education… well maybe, eventually… don’t hold your breathe tho! it’s still being “piloted” in most places – the most advanced national school intranet in the world won’t be anything like advanced by the time it’s fully delivered. If ever. Despite being launched in 2007 my kids have yet to use GLOW. It was launched when they were both in primary school and I am almost 100% confident that they will leave secondary school without being exposed to it at all.
The reality of technology in schools is Windows XP, IE6, Visual Basic 6 and teachers who aren’t “allowed” to have unrestricted online access. They can’t even teach pupils to use right-click at ours’ school since right-click is disabled.
I’m under no illusion that it will be any better for my 4yo – the primary school my older two attended has progressed technology wise not one inch since they started in 2000 and 2001 – oh now wait – it has a few white-boards
The pinnacle of technological achievement at our primary school (one of the best of not THE best in the area) is, according to the headmaster, that all the kids can make a Powerpoint presentation. La-de-dah! 
The scary thing is that the gap between how much we use technology in our everyday lives and or jobs and how much they use it and teach it in schools is widening every year. They still teach them about floppy disks!
My advice? If you want to teach your children anything about technology or using technology (where they learn how to use the tools almost by osmosis anyway)- do it yourself!
Oh dear, floppy disks eh
Fortunately we have technology at home and Erin has begun using the laptop for games etc..
I guess we can only hope the situation imporoves.
Surely, surely, surely, this idea is completely unworkable? How on earth could schools afford fancy (yet impressive) technology like that? It seems ridiculous. My daughter spent one term at our local school before I moved her to a one I felt was better suited to her needs (which it was)and their computer suite consisted of three computers which they had to set up in the canteen as there was no room for them elsewhere. They also ran a course to help educate the parents but the ‘co-ordinator’ did not know how to switch the computers on. When she eventually worked out how to ‘log on’ the ‘lesson’ had to stop because the computers ran out of power and there was nowhere to plug them in!
My daughter’s school has a small yet very good computer room but there is no chance each classroom could ever have a PC in it. There are just not the funds. At the moment the school is raising money to build a new classroom to accommodate the children. These are the basics that need to be provided before the issue of what goes into the classroom comes up and it will be carpet before computers.
I realise I am slightly shouting this comment but it seems that the people who have come up with this idea are living in fantasy land.
Point made, I think!
Hearing you loud and clear Rosie. Erin’s in nursery at the moment but they have a smart board and a very modern looking Mac (that I wouldn’t mind for myself)I was fairly impressed I have to say.