K12 Online David’s message -kinda
Considering how ‘connected kids are today’ according to David, it got me wondering about how connected OUR kids are, here in New Zealand. And compared to NZers everywhere else, how connected are MY kids in Flaxmere?
How connected are they really? New Zealand is small place, the advantage of which is that it takes less time to ‘turn the supertaker’.
It seems to me that the NZ government ‘get it’ more than most. I heard Steve Maharey speak at ULearn and despite him sounding ‘behind the times’ somewhat to our Web2.0 ears, what he did say was a lot more forward thinking than other government officials around the globe. I’m not saying the NZ government has it right, but I am saying is it is ‘further down the track’ than most. (In light of what David was saying they should even be ON the track but I’m pushing the metaphor further than I should).
With so much ‘power of the budget’ at the school level, as is the case here in New Zealand, it leaves an opportunity wide open for the forward planning school.
I hope that the leaders within our schools are equally forward looking as the Minister of Education, and the opportunities not wasted. New Zealand could be on the cutting edge of education reform on a national scale. The ICTPD contacts available to schools, I feel, do not go far enough in implimenting pedagogical change in our classroom. ….. But then as Ian Jukes points out, that is a head issue not a hardware issue.
….I digress….
I was listening to David’s discussion about digital divide this afternoon. My experience shows the flip of Jane’s story. I had my headphones on staring at the screen, a member of staff comes in to discuss something, asks what am I doing so I say about K12 online and anywhere, anytime conference. They glazed over. Offered a smerk- the “what are you on!” expression and walked out!
There are those who get it and those who don’t. There has got to be a strategy for moving people to the former and away from the latter. Ideas anyone?
