ICT Advisors removed from Irish Education System

Governmental support and funding for ICT has been sorely neglected for the past 6 years, with no funding for hardware or software and never any funding for technical support for computers in schools. Yesterday the government recalled the 18 ICT Advisors around the country whose role it was to encourage and support local schools' (Primary & Secondary) usage of ICT as well as organise courses, pilot projects etc.

So in the knowledge society economy, the best move the government have is to remove the only (somewhat) local support schools have.

I have not though this out fully, but if the government are refusing to support any ICT activity in school, then my initial reaction would be to stop flogging the dead horse. Although learning about technology and learning other subjects through technology is clearly the optimal pedagogical approach - I can imagine that teachers might decide to stop bringing computers home to fix them; to stop researching for free / open source software to stimulate their pupils; to stop using ICT altogether in schools.

The absence of funding since 2002 has already left Ireland the weakest technology-in-education country in the EU and OECD. This latest move will unfortunately but assuredly ensure our emerging workforce are the most technologically backward in Europe.

Dangers of 'successful' ICT integration in Education

I don't know what the 'balance' in this story (cf. http://inquisitivity.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-emily-scares-me-stiff.html) is at the moment. I've known of Geoff for the past few years and even exchanged a few emails from time to time. His alarm of what might be emerging seems like it deserves at least a robust debate!

Beautifully Simple explanation of online photo sharing

cf. http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=vPU4awtuTsk

2mins 50seconds
aimed at beginner
no jargon
highly recommended!

Are We There Yet?

Are we there yet?

* Ireland spends 4.6% of GDP on Education
* The OECD average is 6.1%
* Others spend over 8%

Why are we focusing on a few million here and there? Why are we up in arms over a few hundred euros for water? This is a red herring and symptomatic of a much bigger malaise. It's brilliant politicking by Mary and Bertie!! The real issue is why Mary Hanafin does not get at least the 6.1% GDP funding for education from government (€billions extra!!). This would help across all the issues, water, class size, capitation, remuneration - etc. There's only one question to ask Mary Hanafin and government -

Are we there yet?

PS Ireland are 29th out of 34 OECD countries for investment in education.

Education Spending still way below par for Ireland

It's quite amazing that the media, unions, parent and teacher organisations are not up in arms. Irish society is shamefully anaesthesized by headlines (Oct 18th) such as:
"Education spending to reach almost €9billion in 2008 - Minister Hanafin" at: www.education.ie as we mutter to ourselves - Ooh, €9b - that must be good! Hooray for Minister Hanafin and our government!

Bottom line - not only are we supposed to be catching up on neglect of investment, we are also still near the bottom of GDP investment in education, at 4.6%. The OECD average is 6.2%, countries like Iceland and Israel spend 8%, we need to spend MORE THAN OECD average in order to catch up!!

cf. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/20/27/39297945.pdf?contentId=39297946 for graph

This is the only figure that media, parents, unions, teacher organisations etc. should be shouting about!! Let me know when the DES publishes a Press Release that shows the full/true picture of investment.

We teachers like it free ;)

We teachers like things that we get for free! :)
These should keep you busy for a while!!

Cf. http://www.seopher.com/articles/the_70_coolest_free_applications_in_existence


Enjoy!

Ireland out of step re: Social Networking and Education?

cf http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf

This article (PDF) is a much more balanced view of social networking, and a welcome counter to the defensive and reactive positions heard from Irish education and media.

While education and social networking is its main thrust, the article also covers the beginning of some real integration of ICT into teachers' homework, some examples are given below.

Teachers & Internet Homework

School district leaders report that teachers are now routinely assigning homework that requires Internet use to complete, no longer allowing equity concerns to be a barrier:

Nearly all school districts (96%) say that at least some of their teachers assign homework that requires Internet use to complete. More than a third of all school districts 35% say more than half of their teachers assign home-work that requires Internet use. More than 9 out of 10 school districts of low socio economic status say some of their teachers assign Internet-based homework,and more than one in four of these districts say more than half of their teachers do so.

Nearly all school districts (95%)say that at least some of their teachers are using Web pages to com- municate assignments,curriculum content and other information. More than eight out of 10 school districts 88% subscribe to online educational services or learning management systems,or both. Of these subscribing districts, 87 percent allow students to access these services from home.