I am from the “Tech” side, and used to think along the lines of “Filter to protect (both our students and our network).” After a couple of years working along side a colleague (Teacher) I now look at this in very different ways. In usual fashion we locked horns and butted heads. The never ending “I want to be able to teach” vs. “I want to keep my network safe,” but then we started talking. We shared our desires to see our students educated. To be excited about their world, and the never ending opportunities that the digital age is opening up.

We need to allow our Teachers and our Learners to search the world. There definitely needs to be a dialogue between the both parties. We can try and block for moral protection, but that doesn’t teach our students about living in their digital world.

I have just returned from the Expanding Learning Horizons conference, held in Lorne in Victoria. It is a huge event aimed at Teachers and Educators, Visionaries, and also Technicians and IT Managers. In saying that, we shared a few keynote presentations, then the two groups split into their own streams.

I was so inspired that I only attended the educators streams. i am really starting to get my head around the truth that teachers need to be able to teach, and learners need to access.

I could go on and on, and I think I will. I can see my own blog starting here…..stay tuned, I’ll let you know where it ends up.

Each has needs, but what is important that each listens and hears what the other is saying, and then some progress can be made.

Congratulations to whoever brought the parties together:-)

This type of policy must be driven by educators and the needs of learners. The challenge for infrastructure is to enable that.

I agree totally that a focus on tools is a dangerous one. Our approach is to look at functionality - what we want to do - and then at which ever resource enables that to happen most effectively…. as a suite. And of course things will evolve rapidly. Who knows what will be possibly next year but we have to be prepared and we have to be responsive and we need a system that can cater for that with the ‘can do’ mindset.

Just clarifying the “changing of the colour of the screen” comment. That not by an IT guy but by a practitioner, Peter MacFarlane from WA. He has been working extremely hard for 2 years here on implementing Elluminate, and we are now facing the prospect of the State changing to another virtual classroom, and he fears, as do I, that we will have to start the process all over again.

The concept of collaborative national solutions to ‘Computer Network and Firewall Access’ issues is good in concept, but I question what would happen if those that wanted to implement the “most safest solutions to reduce risk to learners and networks” dictated national policy?

While I understand that is might be attractive to provide documentation for system administrators and IT Managers on tools that e-practitioners might like to use. i.e. the purpose of the document they are producing is to identify the common activities, applications and application types that VET e-learning practitioners use, and to provide support for network administrators in catering to these needs. I challenge the idea, unless it is stated at the beginning of the document that this is a guide only and that technologies are changing rapidly and network administrators need to be flexible enough to cater for new needs. With the speed of Web 2.0 applications development, it is highly likely that there will be lots of different applications we will want in 3 months, 6 months etc.

Sue