Teacher PD in ICT. Australia come on! NZ is leaving us behind

How long is it since I have blogged? Far too long. My busy schedule has made it difficult, combined with dealing with personal tragedy. Not a great mix.
But time to try to put my fingers to the keyboard as I spend another day of my weekend commuting for an early start interstate on Monday.

I thought I should reflect on Ulearn08. I was fortunate enough to be an invited speaker to the Ulearn08 conference in Christchurch New Zealand to deliver a presentation “Web 2.0, how exciting learning has become.”

The conference attracted over 1,700 delegates and provided a great smorgasbord of keynotes, spotlights and workshops. The planning was enormous and everything seemed to flow extremely well. There was a significant trade show with strong support from the corporate sector to enhance the use of technology in schools.

Will Richardson and Sheryl Naussbaum-Beach provided the opening keynote and as always inspired the audience with a focus on Professional Learning Communities and the part they play in education. It was a strong theme as the use of twitter through the conference seemed to highlight the power of professional learning communities amongst educators. I will blog about Twitter and my thoughts in the next few days.

There were many Australian’s like myself providing spotlight sessions with our New Zealand friends. Many were practicing teachers who were sharing their journey. There was also a strong presence of early childhood educators, which highlights how early the use of technology has shifted to a much younger sector in education.

What stood out to me was how well New Zealand was doing in the integration of technology in education. I look back ten years ago in Australia, when the Victorian Education Department was seen as the world leader. We were one of the first to provide every teacher with a laptop; we followed this up with a state-wide Wide Area Network to enable high speed internet access to all schools. All documentations was moved online, Technical support was provided to schools and much, much more. More recently the department invested in leading schools and now are working towards the Ultranet (although its already several years behind schedule).

So why is it that New Zealand teachers are far more skilled in the use of ICT, far more skilled in the integration and use of ICT in the classroom and far more knowledgeable in what ICT can do? In my workshops (I ran 4 workshops in addition to my spotlight,) I was continually surprised at the ICT skill level and knowledge of the average teacher. Most were blogging and using a range of web 2.0 tools, however my experience in Australia would indicate that a smaller percentage are at this level and we still have teachers who are excited because they used power point for the first time (technology that is more than 15 years old in education).

Why is this so? Because New Zealand has invested in the most important area of ICT. Teacher professional development. They have provided significant funds to cluster to run professional development over three year periods. Twice this year I have been to NZ to work with clusters who are using their funding in innovative ways. I am talking about significant funds. In many case more than a million dollars. Many clusters have put in specialist coaches and run a range of PD programs, one on one support and regional conferences. Putting money into PD instead of equipment and hardware as Australia has done has made a significant difference.

I look at ULearn08 with 1,700 participants and reflect on Australia’s peak ICT conference (ACEC) which a week earlier drew less than 600 people for a country 4 times or more larger.
I look at the ICT programs being run in Australia and it is now school based or run by subject associations. The regional and state based events seem to be in the minority.
Australia, let’s look at ourselves and look at where we are headed. Significant money is being spent on ICT professional development and learning programs in NZ, Singapore, Honk Kong, and now India and China.

Yet in Australia, we keep investing in hardware. How many Interactive Whiteboards have we put into schools without training our teachers?

Yes we have our innovators and visionaries who are doing great things in many schools; however the average teacher is falling well behind what is happening internationally.
It is time to invest and invest in new ways. Let’s get our teachers up to speed and then think about what resources we need.

We were the leader. We were the best. Our top educators and being poached, our top visionaries are being recognised more and more abroad, yet not locally. It is time for change in teacher professional development in Australia. Let’s get back to where we once were. Let’s Sho w the world again.