Naace 2009

Currently I am attending the Naace conference in Blackpool. An interesting experience if nothing else. One of the concerns I have about the whole BSF/ICT educational agenda is that we seem to be focusing far too much on the technology and not enough on the learning. By creating a conference that has a focus around ICT in learning we effectively create an enironment where the focus is ICT rather than learning. Some of the seminars I have attended seem to fulfil this idea. In my view the key about anything we do in education is that it must enhance learning rather than just using technology because its cool. Take the latest emmerging technology from a well know vendor a large touch surface which can be used to manipulate images, use maps and content. The danger with this innovation is that whilst it is very cool and certainly has the wow factor it maybe that schools go and buy the technology before they have really worked out what we should do with it. We really need to change the culture and make sure we think about things before we do them.