The ICT Power-game!

In reading Silvia Ferrero's “Two Generations of Teachers, Differences in Attitudes Towards ICT”, I was struck by the issue of power that became evident in her research.

In my experience, there has generally been a certain esteem placed upon the tech-savvy individual in any group. He/she was looked upon as being specially skilled and as the go-to person to get you through a difficult IT issue. It wasn't always that the person wanting help was older, many times it was younger folks (it is a misconception that everyone in the net-generation is tech-savvy). Furthermore, the go-to person wasn't always young! Regardless of age, however, that person had a certain level of respect given to them.

While respect was given to these individuals, I cannot recall it ever translating to a concept of power (although, in reality, power is not always overt). “Creating a domain of power” and splitting “teachers up into factions” on the basis of ICT, as in Sardinia, was not something I ever perceived taking root in a school setting. It is also intriguing to see, in the French context, that male teachers were showing up their ICT expertise to their female counterparts. It makes me wonder if, in this case, it is an issue of ICT sexism or if it was merely a case of males using their skills in this field as part of their attempts to woo their female colleagues.

The Scottish research which showed that a few cases of friction between teachers and the defensiveness of one's knowledge, skills and expertise, resulted from ICT issues, is something I can see more easily. For in that scenario, you may have one teacher who has the ICT skill-set and another teacher who is lacking it. The later may feel it necessary to safeguard their own knowledge or fear of losing more ground while empowering the former teacher who is already equipped for this net-generation.

Quite interesting indeed.