A big slow moving system

The title may be a little misleading as I am not talking about the Category 5 Hurricane (Dean) currently making its way through the Gulf of Mexico. No, I am talking about the Australian educational systems and in particular the departments that deal with IT and ICT (both technical and educational).

Recently I was reading a comment in the latest Teacher magazine (August 2007) where a comment is made about the NSW Government looking to install interactive white boards in schools by 2011 at an estimated cost of $30 million. The thing I find the funniest is that this proposal is looking to install only one IWB per school and to be achieved by 2011. By 2011 things would have changed dramatically in regards to technology developments and the tools teachers will be using by that time to engage students - but this the consequence when we have big slow moving educational systems that continue to based ICT developments and implementations on old 20th century thinking. As teachers we are continually reading, talking and being exposed to the need to redefining our teaching to become the expert learners and knowledge professionals - why are our educational bureaucratic colleagues not doing the same? Why do teachers continue to have to wait until 2011 to get their IWB, and what about those schools that have already invested in IWB technologies, well under the NSW plan they can not get the cash - it is the board or nothing.

This type of approach is not just limited to NSW, Victoria at the moment is looking to develop the Ultranet - woooooooooo I hear you all say in unison. The Ultranet if you take the time to read the tender documents or look at the information provided will provide a portal for students, teachers and parents to collaborate and communicate online (I am sure there is more planned for it). Yet this development is of such a huge size that the time to build and then PD staff will mean that by around 2011 when all NSW schools have received their one Government funded IWB  - Victorian schools will be able to safely engage and communicate online.

The problem with these huge online systems is that they consume enornmous resources, time and money that will ultimately have limited impact and use as the technology in the real world advances and schools make use of simpler, more efficient and less costly technology developing their own skills, knowledge and communication forms in their schools that work. Our systems could spend this money so much more effectively and efficiently.

So one question we need to start asking as parents, teachers, leaders, administrators, council members and learners is - when will our educational systems start to change to become less bureaucratic and more responsive to ICT developments and implementation?

Just as they ask us to do the same with our teaching and schools.