Well the debate is heating up.

Yesterday I had coffee with a few colleagues, and before the froth had time to settle, we were right into it. It being a passionate discussion about how new technology is lowering teaching standards, dumbing down academic outcomes, and wait for it, actually reducing people's intellectual capacity; especially young people's intellectual capacity.

My friend Brisley (not his real name) became highly agitated, almost belligerent. Completely out of character for him. He's usually a calm, intelligent, witty and articulate human being. Yet, there he was, going red in the face and blustering about modern technology ruining lives, and society as we know, and understand, it.

The discussion quickly moved into choppy water and suddenly all hands were on deck. These were fiery people with their swords drawn. Ready to slay the dragon, and restore peace to the world. Their world, that is. The world of order and predictability; the bedrock of the education empire. These fiery individuals have been programmed to protect the mighty kingdom, and with Henry the Fifth passion, protect it they would.

Never one to back away from a spirited debate, I jumped up, 'How good is this guys? A close encounter with the education police. It's our time! Finally we can get it out in the open and admit things that may have worked in the past, now need a bloody great overhaul. It's up to us to reshape the building blocks so they fit the future. Square isn't square anymore. Square is a cube with green-goo sides.'

Expressions had changed. Not surprising because these intelligent people just needed a little time to adjust. They're squares, changing into cubes. And they were ready.

Brisley was the first to speak, 'O.K. We get it. Now sit down and stop hogging the floor.' I sat. The hum of thirteen voices energised the room. 'I have to admit', Brisley continued, 'when I read a recent article about the death of teaching I was scared stiff. I love teaching; it's what I do best. If teachers become redundant, then I'm dead.' He laughed, 'Oh sure I can retrain and become a new age healer, or horse whisperer, but technically I'd be dead. Because I'd have no soul.'

Caroline patted Brisley's arm, 'Thanks Bris, but you're not alone. We're all scared stiff.'

'You needn't be', I said, 'We're great teachers because of our love for people. We make our students believe in themselves, and we show them how to reach their full potential. We have to use our skills to help people break down the walls. We have to help them put the sacred cows out to pasture, and remind them that neither, politics, religion or education can control their minds, because minds are fluid things that need to keep flowing towards the sea. It's important they know the sea of knowledge is limitless, and the best humans can do is to accept the fact there are no absolutes.' I paused. Sparkling eyes were watching me, 'If we have courage, our work won't be meaningless. And maybe for the first time in our lives, we can examine every concept, value and belief, and re-evaluate them in the light of ever expanding possibilities. Then we must change our teaching from the premise of 'Why? to Why not?'


SUGGESTION: Google green goo

Leigh Blackall's Learn Online.

I’ve been reading some of Leigh Blackall's great articles and I'm pretty impressed with his Blog Learn On Line. http://learnonline.wordpress.com/ Some of you may know it as Teach and Learn Online. He's recently changed from Blogger to WordPress.

Every article is worth reading, but if time’s an issue right now, (and when isn't it?), I recommend you start with these two:

Flexible Learning in New Zealand part 2 (You might like to read part 1 while you're at it.)

Deschooling Society.
http://flosse.dicole.org/?item=deschooling-society-with-free-phone-calls-skype-on-your-mobile-phone

I think this piece is essential reading for all teachers. It's a great read, especially if you're familiar with Illich's work. But don't be put off if you're not. This is worth the time investment even if you've never heard of Ivan Illich or his deschooling ideas.

True to Leigh’s usual style, all the stuff on the blog is interesting, extremely well written, and thought provoking.

NOTE TO LEIGH: The Moment of Truth piece, struck a chord with me. My son, Simon, has a highly successful IT company. He and his guys have done some impressive stuff with network and internet security for government and large corporate clients, including Australian Defence.

I’ve been given the opportunity to sit in on development meetings from time to time. Listening to the guys talk about the problems they have to clean up daily, and hearing their horror stories, made me realise, a long time ago. that there's a lot a junk being given away in the public domain and it often causes more hassles than it’s worth.

The old cliché stands: you get what you pay for.

So what’s the problem? Why are people so hung up on free stuff?

Is it just that they have tight budgets and really can’t afford to pay for good proprietary product? Or is that humans, especially the Oz variety, just want something for nothing?

When I make a purchase I usually look for quality products. And I’m sure most people would like to have leading brand, top of the range, goods if they had the cash to fund the purchase.

Instead of us all getting behind the freebies, and making them appear to be in high demand because of consumer preference, why don’t we get together and lobby for domestic multi-user licence arrangements?

Hey, think about it. If fifty thousand consumers lobby Microsoft for domestic multi-user licences, don’t you think they would sit up and take notice?

Multi-user licences for the domestic market would allow ten friends to share the purchase cost and then they could all legally install the software on their home computers.

Microsoft sales would increase, unstable freebie software would diminish, and we would have standards again.

And don’t knock standards. I’m probably older than most people who will read this, and for many years I worked in the software engineering division of a large consultancy firm. I can remember the bad old days when every company had its own custom designed software. It was a nightmare. The designers were never available when things went wrong; training cost rocketed because new people had to be taught how to use the in-house systems; and don’t forget the endless update costs. Every time the programmers decided to make changes, whether they were needed or not, the business carried the cost.

I know it's all very exciting to get freebies, but how do you validate programming quality? And what do you do about the system configuration changes freebies often make when you install them? Even small config changes can send you down the path of destruction and you system can become highly unstable in no time at all.