Activity 2 – Attitudes and perceptions of ICT

Well, THIS was a surprise to me! I always thought that the younger the teacher, the more eager to learn the ICT.  Instead, it seems to me that we ‘veterans’ are going after ICT full speed ahead because we do not want to be left behind in the classroom and in the society in which we find ourselves.  It was kind of humbling to see that when I thought I was being ultra innovative and pro-active (like a SUPER-heroine teacher, but without the cape and tights),  I was actually moving true to form and type. My own experiences were when I did a course and realised that I had been trained in FrontPage and it was no longer in use by anyone.  The sense of impotence was strong.  I think it was a bit of a rebellion that led me to doing my final presentation for that course using Powerpoint extensively. Once again, I felt that I had been collaborating in my students’ ignorance when I did not use ICT.  It was painful to see that students knew how to send pornographic videos over their smartphones, but not how to do a web search on an issue we were studying in English Literature.  I know I am sounding like a cliché from the article here, but when I did another course on Web 2.0 tools, I became excited again because I thought there was so much here to work over your imagination!  When I was looking for the younger members of staff for encouragement and/or inspiration, they would look at me oddly.  They basically only used it to show the –very occasional-movie.  Not even to posting questions online could I stretch them to use the technology available.  I am hoping that soon I will be able to encourage students on an even greater basis.  The digital divide hurts when you see other schools which seem to get ahead, while your school seems to go nowhere at all.