In today’s information overloaded society, attention spans and boredom thresholds are low. Every man, woman and child is subjected to a morass of information expertly targeted at specific groups. In the commercial sector much of that information is devised by experts. The quality of presentation and semiotic expertise is high; the graphics are ‘amazing’.

For a long time, teachers have had to compete with such information. Via the low technology of the blackboard / whiteboard a teacher has had an uphill struggle from the start. The innocent eye of the child absorbs what the classroom has to offer and then goes home to 30 television channels, attention grabbing cartoons and the Sony Play Station with all its wonderful imagery.
But now things are changing. The technique that has been widely and effectively used by the commercial sector has now entered the classroom.

On a television screen, a child can see Obi Wan-Ken Obi levitate before their eyes, yet in the classroom, a skilled teacher can levitate Obi and his entire world, even produce new words for him to speak, thus breaking the fixed iconic mould and taking it into new realms.

Through the effective use of IT, schoolteachers are tapping into and utilising a global library of cultural iconography from ancient to contemporary.
Advanced graphical effects can be produced to illustrate and elucidate difficult key concepts whilst maintaining a level of interest.

Via the Internet, the Interactive Whiteboard will be directly linked to a global library of informational resources. Harnessing this power will help restore a balance, long out of kilter. IT savvy teachers will be able to access advanced graphical and presentational effects. They will be able to compete on a level playing field with the marketeers and cartoonists. Given the right circumstances, it is theoretically possible that it will predominantly be the classroom, and not television, that hungry young minds turn to for a daily diet of the awe factor.

Teachers too, will be competent in the technique of the phantasmagorical with all its tricks and gimmickry. Combine that with the essential life and career skills to be found in the classroom, and the status of education will be elevated within the consciousness of a child. The “Pull Factor” for mental stimulation will increase. It will be the school that has the “cool”.

The computer is the world’s best tool for processing and communicating information. The teacher is the world’s best ever method of producing and delivering education. When working together as a team, a new force will have entered society.

Bart Simpson may be capable of impossible feats of mischief on the small screen, yet now it is possible for a skilled teacher to make him stand on his head, jump to attention and obey any command given to him on the classroom Smart Board.

We live in a world of attention grabbing information. Yet in the eyes of a child, it will once again be the teachers who are the ‘masters of the art’.

George Robert Mackay