IT's not going to change everything!!

The more I read and the more I think about the intergration of ICT's into eductation, the more I realise that the more is not necessarily better. I am working with staff that are far less engaged in the use of IT than I am; otherwise I would be out of a job, at lest in my current role. By just putting ICT's into a school doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to be beneficial in the delivery of educational outcomes. I think the challenge is about getting staff onboard.

One of the real difficulties for many staff is confidence. Not just the confidence in their own ability to present the technology in the lession but confidence in the hardware. There is nothing worse than getting the laptop trolley, handing them out to the class, giving the instructions only to find that one by one each student has a problem, and its not just one thing. I know that we were taught during our teacher training (especially as a science teacher) make sure the equipment is going to work, but realistically. If you are a 5 line classroom teacher do you have time to get out the laptop trolley and make sure each machine logs on, and even if it does there will still be some students who do not have the ability to log on for various reasons.

What is the problem? Difficulty in logging on twice (once to the network and once for the internet) for each member of your class, uncertainty that the device will work, it is a real leap of faith and resources to go out, investigate the software you want to use, design a lesson and then attempt to implement it in your class. You know that if you get the trolley out or take your students to the lab there is no going back if it doesnt work. If the students have the expectation that they are going to use computers and it doesnt work to say, "sorry class the tecnology isn't working, get your books out and open your text to page 350" just isn't going to cut it.

I believe if the platform is stable teachers will at least have the confidence to start taking the steps at looking at what they might implement. In my previous school most lessons staff used their IWB's or dataprojectors to display instructional material. It was a know, safe platform. The know that when they walk into their room they can either take their laptop or log onto the network and it will work. The uptake of the netbooks was much less. This i believe is because of the unknown and uncertainty, will every student be able to log on and access the work I have set - chances maybe is not good enough.