[ifets] Conference starts now.

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Chris O'Hagan (C.M.Ohagan@derby.ac.uk)
Mon, 23 Nov 1998 11:04:26 +0000 

From: "Chris O'Hagan" <C.M.Ohagan@derby.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 11:04:26 +0000
Subject: [ifets] Conference starts now.

Hi everyone.

The topic of this conference which starts today and concludes next
week is:

The next generation, like tomorrow, never comes.

The context for this is *education*. Of course, technologies
themselves build on previous technologies - at an ever increasing
rate, and that is the problem. Are teachers keeping up with the
changes? Are they making use of all the educational technologies
that are available to them to facilitate learning? Or are many of
them, most of them, being left behind?

The epigram, 'Tomorrow never comes' reminds us that it is 'today'
that counts - that our aspirations, our projections into the future
are fraught with uncertainty: that when tomorrow turns into today it
is rarely as expected. So *carpe diem* - seize the day, make the
most of *now*.

Thus the derived epigram, 'The next generation never comes' might
suggest that if we are always looking into the future in expectation
of a revolution that will liberate us and make everything suddenly
easier, we will be disappointed.

Are champions of technology like ourselves guilty of this - a kind
of laziness, of not really facing up to *now*, of avoiding the
tedium of making what we have work well because it is more fun to
work at pushing back the frontiers with the few explorers than to
make the plains flourish, working with the everyday ' settlers' in
their unremitting routine? Has the arrival of the digital
exacerbated such a gap between frontier and plain?

So I ask, Have we made full and proper use of the 'old' technologies
for teaching and learning, particularly in public education? If not,
why not? Because if we have not learnt to apply previous innovations
ubiquitously in pedagogically satisfactory and enhancing ways, what
guarantee is there we'll ever be able to do it for the 'new'
technologies!? Are we doomed to be forever running after the bus
never knowing what destination is written on the front, and not
noticing the possibilities that flash past on each side?

Over to you. All of us will have some experience that does or does
not fit the above description. I look forward to a very varied
discussion. Carpe diem - it only lasts a few days!

As moderator for this conference, I will try and disentangle the
threads as they emerge. Karen Allnut will be summarising our debate
at regular intervals.

Chris O'Hagan
============================================
Christopher O'Hagan
Dean of Learning Development
Centre for Educational Development and Media
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
DERBY, DE22 1DA
England

Tel: +44 (0)1332 622262 (direct)
Fax: +44 (0)1332 622772
Email: c.m.ohagan@derby.ac.uk
WWW: http://www.derby.ac.uk/cedm/welcome.html

CEDM is home to a Teaching and Learning Technology
Support Network Centre, one of nine in the UK offering
free support to UK Higher Education Institutions:
tltsn@derby.ac.uk

Without Contraries is no progression - Wm Blake

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