interactivity...

The purpose of this blog is to create an online collaborative space to discuss the issues and challenges associated with the appropriate and effective integration of technology into an educational environment.

When we go "live" tomorrow, we will be posting more findings from the Equity and Technology Project, along with the thoughts and ideas of a number of educational professionals from different school boards across Nova Scotia and representatives from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, the Department of Education, and the Faculties of Education from the three universities in Nova Scotia which offer an education degree.

The whole idea of this is to bring different points of view into the discussion; parents, teachers, students, policy officials... even though these voices are not going to be physically present in the room, we can use the power of this interactive space to open the dialogue to anyone who's interested in participating.

So pop in throughout the day... read, think about it, interact with us. Perhaps you know of effective teaching strategies that incorporate the Internet or computer games. Or maybe you would like to know about how the education system is preparing children for the so-called "knowledge society." Heck, even if you just think what we're doing with this live blogging is interesting... we want to hear from you.

A few findings to think about...

The following are a few of the findings we will be discussing tomorrow during the workshop.

Gender Differences (Students)

• Males spend more time at home and school
• Males report more skills and more confidence
• Females: more communication, more school work


• Males more use of spreadsheets & programming
  

Socio-Economic Status (Students)

• Major impact on home access
• This translates into effects on:
  Amount of use
  Type of use
  Skill development
  

Rural/Urban Differences (Students)

• Differences in access, especially to high speed Internet


• School access important for rural; more time on school computers & Internet
• Urban students report wider range of skills
• No rural-urban differences in confidence

Race/Culture (Students)

• Major impact on home access
• First Nations - African Candians - White - Asian and other
• Leads to less time using ICT at home & overall
• Lower levels of skills
• Lower levels of confidence
• 

I'll be posting a few more findings from the teachers later in the day, along with some hints for effective use of this blog tomorrow during the workshop.