New Brunswick on ICT...

I read an interesting article yesterday in the Telegraph Journal. Ian Cavanagh from Ambir explains his views on promoting and making New Brunswick a leader in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). I was inspired by Cavanagh's comments on the urge for the government to ensure the full potential of ICT as a source to lead the self-sufficiency vision proposed by the Graham's government. In the article, we can read;

"New Brunswick has many of the right ingredients to become a significant ICT hub. We have universities that produce world-class engineering and computer science graduates. We have professionals in both the public and private ICT sector who are experts in their fields. We have experienced people, whether those originally from here or immigrants and anyone else "from away," who would love to live here and are willing to make the move to our region. Finally, and very fortunately, we have an exploitable geographic advantage that positions us ideally to be a bridge between markets in North America (New York and New England) and Europe... and even Asia."

I agree with him on the fact that there are people in New Brunswick capable of taking this task. We need ways to reduce red tape and to encourage individuals and organizations to pursue and to promote ICT usage.

Cavanagh continue with ;

I believe that if we are to get serious about ICT in New Brunswick in the context of economic development, we need senior government leadership to drive it, with fundamental support and input from the private sector. Specifically, I recommend that the Premier establish a Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. Undertaking such a move not only demonstrates bold leadership, but also a keen understanding of the strategic relevance of ICT in today's global wired economy.

Here again, if this is a belief that ICT are a good way to function in the world economy, we need leadership ans opportunities. The next year will be full of new innovations and new endeavours. For schools, it is important to understand that the world is not going to wait that teachers are ready before transforming new technologies. It is happening right now! We as educators need to adjust and make the changes in our teaching practices. Time will tell but, I don't think that we can afford any longer. Already, some schools are involved in all kinds of projects. The 1 to 1 laptop project has great potential but need to grow further. We need to help kids to write better and to produce content available on the web. We need different type of communities interacting with one and each other. ICT gives us tools to do this and we need to encourage educators who do so. Making a trail isn't always easy and their is no point to enter a cavern to see if there is a bear... Ask someone who already been in the cavern...

Clarence Fisher's post is also a great inspiration on the topic. Fisher a teacher from Manitoba, asks the same kinds of questions. He writes ;

In education, people have struggled to make things happen. People have fought filters and their bosses to get access to the tools they needed. We have had several instances of people having projects canceled, but as far as I know, no one has lost a job over their implementation of 2.0 tools in their classroom.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not wishing for anyone to have this hardship placed on them; but it does make me wonder, if no one is directly challenged and threatened by our ideas, are they really that revolutionary?

Fisher also writes ;

It's time for us to start thinking through bigger ideas. Blogs are not new anymore. Neither is Voicethread or flickr or wikis. But what about curriculum design, and power and democracy in classrooms? What about questioning who gets to organize learning experiences and perform evaluation? What about setting kids loose to solve community problems? These are things that are more of a direct challenge to the way that education is more traditionally organized. These are the kinds of things that might manage to get us fired. When classrooms stop looking like classrooms and begin looking like something else, then we know we're on the move to something else.

There is hope...lots of it!

My school has work in new ways to develop ICT and to refine its use in learning. We have attrck lots of attention but some of the expactations might have been to high in a too short time frame. We need to keep working on it and a new vision on ICT in New Brunswick seems to be a good way to start...