TEACHERS ARE DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS

Children are more smater in learning new technology skills than their teachers,not that the kids are giniues but because they are ambitous,curious and more motivvated to learn because they have to fit in the world of their peers, that view technology as an easy plaything.To taechers, this a challenge.
       The big challenge in creative use of technology is the development of staff knowing that there are as many exciting technology being developed and their is no enough time for teachers to  learn  at the same time continue with their class curriculum.
     For teachers to manage this transition from chalk and talk to a more student centered digital class, teachers should let go the notion that teachers should learn new skills first before the student. they should instead take the advantage that students are the real citizen of this digital world and are exposed to a lot of technology than  them,and that teachers can learn technological skills from their students who are more than willing to help! In fact this would improve teacher - student relationship and build a mutual respect for both.
     The most important thing that teachers  should do is to survive in foreign world is to do the following;   1. Have the ability to manage the use of technology in class without having to know more technical details of the same.
                   2. Manage students brain power in technology use.
The first issue is easy to achieve if we include ICT as part of the curriculum to be taught in teacher training colleges, I am not talking about communication skills and technology in Education units that are already offered in college,I am talking about integrating of technology in teaching - learning process in class. For those already practicing ,inservice courses should be organised to update teachers on the use technology in class, this should be done regularly as need be to keep pace with the development of technology.
The second one is more difficult to achieve , however ; very crucial. As much as teachers should allow students to manage their own learning, their should be a limit. Teachers must maintain the role of being the chief Editors and publishers of all the materials that student access on the internet. teachers should help students to identify website and social medias that are resourceful to students ,guide on what to publish,when to publish and how to make meaningful the feedback from these media.

ICT INTEGRATION IN KENYA SCHOOLS

The government of Kenya has finally revealed, it will roll out computer to k1 ( class 1 ) to all kids in the republic come next year at a cost of Ksh.53 billion ($0.61 billion). The idea has ignited a hot debate on either to employ more teachers that are already scarce,build physical infrastructure to school, remunerate teachers well, or integrate ICT in teacher training schools first. More challenges and fears are still being registered on how to control what kids can access from the internet knowing the curiosity they have to learn
  Back in the year 2005 , the Singapore came to Kenya to borrow a leaf on ICT policies, by that time Kenya had already done its ICT policy. As we speak today Singapore is among the world best ICT integrated policy in Education. The big question is what happens to our policies once formulated? For how long will we keep these policies on the shelves? How long will we have fear for the unseen?
  Personally we needed this project like yesterday ! Now that it is here with us we should not wish it away.Lets support the government  as stake holder and contribute positively on how to implement it successfully instead of politicking and rubbishing this noble idea.
   The government ,however; should not wholly ignore the concerns raised by Kenyans because if the program is to a success then we need well established ,laid down and transparent policies on procurement, supplying, distribution ,management ,maintenance and training programs
   For Kenya to realise its vision 2030, we need to communicate, share ideas , compare ourselves to the rest of the world , train more skills to our people in a more interesting and interactive way. We have to integrate ICT in Education