Over the Jump you will find the full interview with Colin Gould who gives his candid thoughts as to how schools could spend their funding and recollects Apple IIe’s!
1. Colin – you got your start with an Apple 2E – what’s the rest of the story?
Gosh … That’s almost ancient history …. But here goes…
When the first Apple IIe arrived at my school (courtesy of CAP), I, being the teacher librarian at the time, recall making the comment “What on Earth are we going to do with a computer in a primary school?”
Due to circumstances I found myself being drawn to this lump of grey plastic and set about “mastering” it. Luckily there were a few other like minded teachers in the area then and over time we sort of became the “experts” locally.
From IIe’s I graduated to IIGS, 575’s etc and went from running word processing and other pieces of software to developing webpages and setting up networks. At the same time I began to be in some demand to run workshops for teachers and present at conferences – mainly showing what we were achieving at the school at that time. I was still a teacher-librarian, and the computer coordinator but had a great boss who encouraged me to explore and gave me time to go away to do these presentations as well as visit conferences and “lighthouse schools” to gather ideas etc.
In the late 1990’s I was asked to set up a webpage for CAP and maybe run a few workshops if required – the expectation was that this would only be a part time position but by June 1999 it was obvious that I was never in my school any more and something had to be done – hence the position became permanent and I’m still here today.
2. Tell us a little about CAP and some of the great work that you see teachers producing.
Country Areas Program is a federally funded program aimed at overcoming the educational disadvantages encountered by students in rural and isolated areas. In NSW CAP supports in excess of 24,000 students in 240 schools (two thirds of which are small one and two teacher schools) including Distance Education schools which service the most geographically isolated areas of New South Wales.
The webpage has given all these isolated schools a “focus point” as it houses all the admin forms etc, calendars of upcoming workshops as well as a mountain of resources including the OnLine Resource Modules (similar to Web Quests) and the Bloom’s / Multiple Intelligence Grids which were all written by teachers at CAP workshops.
Presently I am engaged with a number of teachers scattered around the state in some really exciting Wikispaces projects in which they are collaborating with each other and schools in Wales and the US. Teachers and students are sharing their ideas, thoughts and information using audio files and podcasts as well as the more traditional photos, movies and text.
Where will it all end? That’s part of the beauty of it all – no-one knows!
3. How has technology changed education for country areas and their students?
Prior to the advent of the internet (and yes, there WAS a time) students in rural and isolated areas had to depend on their school or local town’s libraries. In both cases, small towns and schools had few resources, leaving senior high school students especially, in a very disadvantaged situation. The internet, and the rollout of computers and broadband access by the NSW DET, has gone a long way to “levelling the playing field” for these students. Today, students from even the most isolated schools in NSW can access the world’s great libraries and museums, conduct searches for the most esoteric information, question and discuss issues with scientists, physicists, explorers, writers etc as well as with other students anywhere.
The challenge for teachers is to make the best use of this fantastic technology – to ensure that students have the skills to access the information they require when they need it.
4. You seem like the elder statesman of NSW Web 2.0 – how long are you going to keep doing what you are doing now?
ELDER statesman? Hmmmm OK I guess I’m sort of old (at the age when superannuation is REAL and not far away!)
I probably won’t be in this particular position in a few years time but I think I’ll be doing similar work in a more part time manner – possibly assisting schools and teachers with remote support although I think I will always be keen for the “face to face” type of workshops when the enthusiasm of both presenter and participant are integral.
5. 10k to spend on technology in education – what are you going to spend it on?
Assuming I can’t spend it on me travelling to other parts of the world to attend Tech Conferences, I guess I would be looking towards investigating the use of iPod Touch in the classroom setting, using the money to purchase a bank of them and provide inservicing to ensure their full implementation. Probably where CAP differs most from other programs is in the provision of inservicing or training for teachers in the belief that the most effective way to improve the educational outcomes of students is to improve the quality of the teaching! Hence using the money for training.
Sydney Beyond Chalk Facilitator
