A post in the Silicon Republic shows that Irish tiger has similar economic issues as many other Western nations, and that it cannot rest on its recent successes in information technology. The author states that the success of the IT sector stems from investments in education that were made in the 1960’s. Similar investments must be made now if the Irish economy is to remain competitive. He cites Seaghan Moriarty, “a former primary teacher who also works in the third-level sector and who has worked as webmaster for the Irish National Teachers Organisation and the Irish Primary Principals Network”:
“Not only should Irish pupils be learning technology but they also should be learning through technology. The Government is doing a huge disservice to the economy by having an ad hoc vision. The technology is here and the Irish are just not prepared,” Moriarty warned.
As I noted in my last post, it is obvious that agricultural work has tanked at below 2%, manufacturing work is decreasing and knowledge work is increasing. That means that knowledge workers will soon be the largest, and best paid, segment of our workforce. Local economic sustainability will be dependent on the presence of knowledge workers and almost all of these knowledge workers will use the Internet as an essential part of their business.
However, this Province and other regions are still graduating students without the necessary skills for the Internet Age. Schools still have outmoded computer labs, when no one in any workplace today goes to a lab to use a computer. Connected computers are essential for work today and should be an integrated part of all schools. If not, schools will continue their slide to irrelevance in the minds of most students and many parents.
Current initiatives, such as the New Brunswick government’s Quality Learning Agenda fail to address the critical issues of preparing our students for life and work in the Internet economy. Of the stated challenges to our education system, the report does not include the need for specific Internet Age skills, such as the ability to work in a virtual collaborative environment. Neither does the Department of Education intend to put a computer in the hands of every student. How then will our graduates be able to prosper in a flattened world without even the most basic of skills?
I’ll close with some words from Marshall Mcluhan, a Canadian who saw where our education system was going as print was being replaced by electronic media:
The school system, custodian of print culture, has no place for the rugged individual. It is, indeed, the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.
McLuhan also accurately described how, “We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.“
Update: Just over the border in the State of Maine, they have announced the purchase of about 36,000 Apple iBooks for Grade 7 & 8 students, at a cost of $(US)289 each. One reason for the low cost is the use of open source software, such as the Mac version of OpenOffice, NeoOffice, as well as the Gimp image manipulation program. Looks like a sweet deal.