Carcast on Tech in Education

I have been struck recently while listening to the podcasts recorded by David Noble ( http://booruch.libsyn.com/ ) as part of his Edonis Project ( http://edonis.ning.com/ )about the quality of ICT Professional Development. David has spoken with many of the UK's cutting edge Education IT community and as part of his sequence of questions has asked his participants about their ICT PD experiences. It is hugely revealing and I would hazard not news to report that the vast majority of interviewees report very little directed formal ICT education as part of their intial traing and/or following their qualification. I would also echo that experience as it is very similar to my own. It is telling that David has spoken to a cross section of teachers with a wide range of teaching experience, all of which paints a less than hopeful situation for formal ICT training for teachers as it does not appear at present to be keeping pace. Many of those spoken to have actually achieved their most transformational PD through the power of new technology ( Web2.0)which has enabled these teachers to connect in informal PD networks with like minded professionals globally. It must be time that formal ICT training makes use of the experience of these highly motivated teachers, who have a passion to improve teaching through the use of technology in innovative ways in a more formal environment. I know that I have joined the ranks of this formal educational training, however I would say that I firmaly believe that the online professional development that we at the IB offer our teachers comes from a sound understanding of the use of new technology can be used to build professional networks of teachers who can work collaboratively on the development of subject based wikis and also use of social networking sites such as Ning(http://ning.com/). Both of these tools were used by Julie Lindsay and Barbara Stephanics in their recent online workshop for teachers called - Web 2.0 in the IB Classroom ( http://tripleaworkshops.ibo.org/file.php/1/mar_09/web_20/page_01_summary.html ). I believe that the use of this type of workshop can work in a virally informal way within a formal setting, I look forward to seeing more innovations like this appearing in PD.