Nevertheless, I made my presentation on Monday 28. It was the last one in the programme. There were about thirty people, mostly acting teachers. The talk raised a lot of interest and curiosity from the audience, some asked a few questions, some voiced a few concerns, some wanted to understand the difference between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. One example that I gave was the Tags Cloud above that demonstrate a new idea of semantic organization of information in an interactive way. It took about 30 minutes to finish the talk. A woman who woks in Ryazan Commandos School asked if she could recommend the site for her cadets who would like to practise English in a motivating environment. Well, I am now expecting more new users
On 1-2 April I am giving a talk on the same subject in Tver State University. I will brief you after I have come back to Ryazan.

So the point has two aspects, right? The first: to blame ourselves; the second: to blame the conditions. And we tend to think that the problem is in people. Yes, sounds quite true. But everyone who was in classroom 18 in school №3 would agree that those CONDITIONS don't let any teacher to have effective lessons.....A computer in the classroom? What are you talking about? Pupils have to sit just in front of the blackboard (nearly touching it with their noses); the teacher can't come to the blackboard and write anything on it. Nay, you can't even walk between the two rows of desks! The pupils don't listen to you simply because it's not possible to be attentive sitting in 'full-back position' to the teacher. Internet technologies? Look for them somewhere else....

Oh, yes, this fantastic classroom 18... I'm absolutely sure that this “room” can be used only as a boxroom. So, you're absolutely right – school conditions influence educational process greatly. In the same school № 3 I came across the following situation: a pretty and quite roomy classroom with a computer on the teacher's desk and a projector under the ceiling – almost everything any modern teacher needs. But then I noticed one thing – a sheet of paper on the computer. Just let me quote: «Компьютер не трогать! Он сохнет!!!». Dunno where the problem was - may be the ceiling or the pipe were leaking, but the fact is – it's not enough to have necessary equipment and satisfying conditions, it's also important to be responsible, watch your property and be able to keep it safe.

Nearly all people are conservative. They understand that if something they can do (or possess) is good and worthy, what to change it for? For example, if they have always managed to conduct really good lessons without computers and any other technologies, why do they have to learn to make Power Point presentations to make them more interesting?
The next problem is that people are lazy. If they know there is no obligation to do this or that, they're unlikely to do it. Of course, there are some activists, but there are so few of them!

Yes, you are right- people are lazy. But on the other hand, don't you think that our universities simply do not prepare such teachers who are really very good at making "non-ordinary lessons". So we demand old teachers to use computer technologies, but are you sure that every young teacher can do it?

No, I'm not. But actually I can't agree with your position. You blame universities for not preparing professionals. And what do these poor universities have to do? Make everybody use the Internet when making lesson plans for the classes of Methodology? It wouldn't work!
I suppose this is not the problem of Universities. This is the problem of people's unwillingness to work (that is laziness, to my mind).

Well, yes, I agree with you, but in my opinion all this "the internet-avoiding" is happening mainly because there are not so many young teachers at school. We can see that for some currently working teachers it is a great difficulty to even make a presentation, and when it is ready they think that they have just made SOMETHING really interesting...well, it is like a great achievement for them. And anyway, if a teacher has been working for 30 years using only a textbook, it must be really difficult for him to change it for computer-things. It is a fact. And unfortunately we are unable to do anything with it.

Yes, trying to avoid boring tasks school teachers resort to computer technologies, but still, making presentations and bringing Internet resources "under cultivation" are not the same things. Schools are far behind the real technological progress. Some teachers are even AFRAID of typing their lesson plans on the computer (say nothing of surfing the Internet for some materials). It is a shame teachers are making their heads against the technological revolution (which is speeding up really) and don't want to accept that our future will be quite different from what we have now.

I would not say that every teacher ignores modern technologies. Probably in our university teachers just prefer to avoid them since it would take more time and also many efforts. In many schools people are quite lazy for using the Internet too. But, I just wanted to say that for example in my school (I mean the school where we are teaching now) the teacher always asks me to make presentations, to show pupils some video films, to bring pictures and so on. Well, yes, she does not use any web-sites for homework but every time when I say to her, "Maybe I could change the task in such a way...?" She always says, "Why not". And she really does not like lessons when pupils only have to read things, answer the questions and then write something in their notebooks. As she always says, "Even a small presentation can make the lesson more productive and interesting". So probably not every teacher is so reluctant to use something else besides a textbook.

It just proved how interested in Internet technologies modern teachers are. It seems strange to me that they are so reluctant to improve our system of education. We complain that our schools and universities are falling to pieces but do nothing to prevent it. Why not make our education process more diverse and effective? Why not draw people's attention to the huge gap that exists between the requirements modern life imposes on us and the level of skills we get after graduating a college/finishing school? It's really sad we are so indifferent.

It sounds really annoying!!! I would have got really frustrated and irritated!!!!
But I know you are not like me. You never give up! Am I right?! I am sure that no matter what you have to withstand you'll manage to achieve your goal.

Well, the conference was actually a failure. They were four speakers in the panel session. Two speakers gave awful presentations. Then we had a break from 1 to 2 p.m. The second session started at 2. NOBODY CAME! So, I didn't have a chance to present my paper. The conference was on Quality Management in Education, but they didn't manage a quality conference!