A Way With Words
So..after all of my hard work and dedication and ingenuity and perseverance I am told that
I am right back to where my predecessors were ten to fifteen years ago. I must
say Stephen Downes has a very succinct way of putting things. That is not to
say that I disagree with him. It is rather humorous to think that after all of
the amazing collaborative efforts of our top minds, after all of the
conferences, and collaborative efforts around the world, we have ended up with a
system that is, ”led by an instructor, following a specified curriculum to be completed at a
predetermined pace. (Downes, 2005)
Challenges
One of the challenges that I foresee in our future as educators is the evolving, or
is it devolving, nature of our clientele. This year, more than ever, I feel a
change in my students. Perhaps it is just a ‘tough group’. Perhaps I am
grumpier or more sensitive do to my busy life. Whatever it is, I feel a
tremendous level of disengagement from the kids. I pride myself on not speaking
for too long. I am the poster child for ‘Guide on the Side”. However, there
are times when I do need to convey information orally and I need them to hear
me. This year more than ever, I can see them checking out. I can see it in
their eyes that they just want me to ‘shut up’ and get on with telling them
exactly what it is they have to do and when it is due. Maybe this is just an
off year, but whatever it is, it is forcing me to plan ahead and think of
alternate ways of getting the information, or instructions from my brain into
their brains.
A second challenge, and I hate to use this one because I am the one constantly
telling teachers to get over themselves, is the actual hardware in our schools.
Time and time again I attempt to introduce a new program that has been shown to
me at a conference or by my peers and I am left with a big chunk of failure.
Daily I encounter difficulties such as having three different versions of a
program on three different computers; not being able to save a movie due to
‘drive is full’; and computers simply not loading because they are having a bad
day. These challenges and a host of others make it not just difficult for me,
as I expect to have them, but for teachers I am attempting to sway to the dark
side. Simply having to come to me to turn on the ATRT (All The Right Type)
server in the morning is enough to put one of my veteran teachers into hysterics. I am
not generally a political type, however, I find it somewhat confusing when a
government is pushing an agenda, such as “21st Century Learning”, yet does not
see fit to offering the appropriate assistance.
Opportunities
In terms of opportunities the possibilities are endless. When my daughter’s
teacher wrote on her blog this week that some students have emailed their
assignments through and some have shared on google docs., it almost brought a
tear to my eye. It was only a few short years ago that myself and a small team
of teachers began to spread the gospel of ‘google docs’ in SD71. I have been
delighted at the response by teachers around the district who continue to take
what was shown to them and share back ten-fold their own ideas and
interpretations.
Another staple in my diet of sharing educational resources is the Moodle program.
Though our abilities to ‘lurk’ and pilfer other teachers' courses in SD71 has
been cut back. I find that the ability to browse through other' courses
in the quest for new ideas and resources is hugely beneficial. I am constantly
referring students, parents, teachers and student-teachers to my Moodle site.
There they may find rubrics, links, instructions, as well as get a general sense
of where we have been and where we are going.
These two examples of mass sharing are just a hint of the possibilities that I feel
technology offers. I feel strongly that it is opportunites such as these that
will most impact, and improve, our abilities to reach the coming generations.
Andrew
So..after all of my hard work and dedication and ingenuity and perseverance I am told that
I am right back to where my predecessors were ten to fifteen years ago. I must
say Stephen Downes has a very succinct way of putting things. That is not to
say that I disagree with him. It is rather humorous to think that after all of
the amazing collaborative efforts of our top minds, after all of the
conferences, and collaborative efforts around the world, we have ended up with a
system that is, ”led by an instructor, following a specified curriculum to be completed at a
predetermined pace. (Downes, 2005)
Challenges
One of the challenges that I foresee in our future as educators is the evolving, or
is it devolving, nature of our clientele. This year, more than ever, I feel a
change in my students. Perhaps it is just a ‘tough group’. Perhaps I am
grumpier or more sensitive do to my busy life. Whatever it is, I feel a
tremendous level of disengagement from the kids. I pride myself on not speaking
for too long. I am the poster child for ‘Guide on the Side”. However, there
are times when I do need to convey information orally and I need them to hear
me. This year more than ever, I can see them checking out. I can see it in
their eyes that they just want me to ‘shut up’ and get on with telling them
exactly what it is they have to do and when it is due. Maybe this is just an
off year, but whatever it is, it is forcing me to plan ahead and think of
alternate ways of getting the information, or instructions from my brain into
their brains.
A second challenge, and I hate to use this one because I am the one constantly
telling teachers to get over themselves, is the actual hardware in our schools.
Time and time again I attempt to introduce a new program that has been shown to
me at a conference or by my peers and I am left with a big chunk of failure.
Daily I encounter difficulties such as having three different versions of a
program on three different computers; not being able to save a movie due to
‘drive is full’; and computers simply not loading because they are having a bad
day. These challenges and a host of others make it not just difficult for me,
as I expect to have them, but for teachers I am attempting to sway to the dark
side. Simply having to come to me to turn on the ATRT (All The Right Type)
server in the morning is enough to put one of my veteran teachers into hysterics. I am
not generally a political type, however, I find it somewhat confusing when a
government is pushing an agenda, such as “21st Century Learning”, yet does not
see fit to offering the appropriate assistance.
Opportunities
In terms of opportunities the possibilities are endless. When my daughter’s
teacher wrote on her blog this week that some students have emailed their
assignments through and some have shared on google docs., it almost brought a
tear to my eye. It was only a few short years ago that myself and a small team
of teachers began to spread the gospel of ‘google docs’ in SD71. I have been
delighted at the response by teachers around the district who continue to take
what was shown to them and share back ten-fold their own ideas and
interpretations.
Another staple in my diet of sharing educational resources is the Moodle program.
Though our abilities to ‘lurk’ and pilfer other teachers' courses in SD71 has
been cut back. I find that the ability to browse through other' courses
in the quest for new ideas and resources is hugely beneficial. I am constantly
referring students, parents, teachers and student-teachers to my Moodle site.
There they may find rubrics, links, instructions, as well as get a general sense
of where we have been and where we are going.
These two examples of mass sharing are just a hint of the possibilities that I feel
technology offers. I feel strongly that it is opportunites such as these that
will most impact, and improve, our abilities to reach the coming generations.
Andrew