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| Am I somewhere over the rainbow |
I slept late this morning, especially considering that I was leaving early for the airport, off to the Texas Library Association Conference in San Antonio. It’s been so nice to be home for a week and watch the Azaleas bloom, and the temperatures range from the 70s to sub-freezing — gez.
I got up and wrote a quick blog entry about a conversation I had with a friend on the Raleigh Greenway yesterday. She works for a highly respected professional development organization, here in North Carolina. She talked about how they teach teachers to collaborate — so I asked her whether they used any Web 2.0 applications in their workshops. She said that only half of the teachers they work with can even attach a file to an e-mail message. No Web 2.0!
I set about whining over my blog about this, and caught myself just before hitting the submit button — because I don’t believe it. I do not believe that most teachers are too far behind to start learning new tools. They’re smart, resourceful, dedicated, and they are professional learners.
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| I was flabergasted that a search for ruby slippers on flickr’s creative commons search page revealed 26 pictures. |
I whined about recently being accused of living in an echo chamber, “..jet setting from technology conference to technology conference..” and I asked myself, “Is there much distance between the emerald city that I talk about, and the Kansas where teachers live?”
My answer? There isn’t much distance at all. It’s just a matter of looking down at the ruby slippers of learning that every teacher wears, clicking them together, and believing. There is a very real wall between the classrooms of today, and the classrooms that our children deserve, but it’s a very thin wall. It’s a matter of believing — making people believe.
😉 MynApology to my very good teacher-friends in Kansas. They know that theres is one of my favorite states, one of the most open to suggestions of new ways of thinking about teaching, learning, and classrooms.
Image Citations:
Wangsa, Roy. “Rainbow.” Rwangsa’s Photostream. 9 Apr 2007. 11 Apr 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/rwangsa/452128709/>.
Barss-Bailey, Jacob. “Ruby Slippers.” Jacob Barss-Bailey’s Photostream. 26 Oct 2005. 11 Apr 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/jacob/56334400/>.
Also, don’t we think that collaboration via Web 2.0 tools is easier and better than attaching documents to emails? Isn’t that the point?
While I agree that the wall between where many teachers are and where they could be is small, I also think that it may take some time to tear down that wall. I did a workshop yesterday for a small group of educators…and only one person in the room had ever seen a blog. Once they start to explore 2.0 tools, the change goes quickly. But many just have not seen them and played with them yet in order to get a feeling of confidence.
I can only reply about my experience. This blog, among many others, has drastically changed the way I ‘do teaching’. Don’t think that your ‘jet setting’ is not valuable. You are having a profound effect on teaching.
“She talked about how they teach teachers to collaborate.”
I wonder if we shouldn’t be lowering the profile of the technology in these conversations with teachers and just focus on getting the job done. Why do the teachers want to collaborate? What do they expect to accomplish? What impact will collaboration have on professional practice? These are the questions they should be getting their heads around. The technology should be incidental, merely tools to accomplish specific tasks.
I don’t notice “technological apprehension” in other professional groups as much as I do in education. For instance my husband had a new ocular imaging system installed in his office last week. This is completely new equipment, software and processes for the office staff. This week staff are familiarizing themselves with the camera, imaging and analysis software, and patient database. We aren’t hearing questions such as “Why do I have to learn this; how will I learn this; how will I keep up?” Everyone is focussed on the end result, improved patient care. The staff are getting some preliminary images that are too dark or out of focus. They are practising and working together to take clearer, sharper images that will show the healthy eye, or the pathology, the doctors are looking for. Along the way…they’ll master the technology…
Why don’t we do that in schools – job-embed learning opportunities and give teachers a variety of tools to meet their pedagogical goals? Then along the way…
David – It’s not the teachers, it’s the institution. Until that changes, until we change what school is, there will be no real change.
If you show them, they will come….my apologies to Field of Dreams! Of course a lot of teachers don’t know how to attach a file to email. A lot of people in general do not know how to do that. But that should not mean that we don’t show them how to do it! The same applies to Web 2.0 (and I agree that many web 2.0 tools are EASIER to work than attaching emails). We have to get away from the concern that I frequently hear about – overwhelming teachers. Once teachers see the type of learning and engagement students demononstrate when creating a wiki or blog or podcast or mindmap, etc., they are sold!
Underwhelming teachers has gotten us nowhere. It is time to overwhelm, but in a positive way. Showing teachers examples of what students are doing with the new tools such as Clarence Fisher et al’s International Teenlife wiki or Darren Kurapatwa’s class blogs will get them excited! And excited teachers will want to learn HOW to replicate that type of engagement and learning in their own classrooms.
Using web 2.0 tools for school planning, staff meeting agenda’s, for collecting feedback on professional learning experiences are all excellent ways to expose teachers to wikis and blogs without the tedium of a session in which teachers all sit at a computer and learn how to use them, without actually USING them. It needs to become “just in time, just enough” learning. Exactly how their students learn new tools.
My role as an educator is to bring teachers together to plan implemenation of the new Manitoba initiative, Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum. We have a blog and two wikis which we use to collaborate, plan and share. The teachers involved are amazed at how simple these tools are to create and use. Their experience has led to use of these tools in their classrooms. And a lot of these teachers would still have problems attaching files to emails. But attaching files to emails is not exciting and they can’t see the benefit to their students.
Let’s start overwhelming them!
Learn more about Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum, a Developmental Continuum by visiting http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/index.html
Dave,
I think teachers will start to use the tools of Web 2.0 more when they recognize that they can gain something valuable from it. We’ll have to hold their hands in the beginning, but hold their hands as we walk towards something with which they are familiar and comfortable. Whereas most classroom teachers hold class discussions, I’ve set up a social network site (as an offshoot of classroom 2.0) where people can discuss class discussions. What should we be discussing with our students? How should we be facilitating these conversations? The address is: http://classdiscussions.ning.com I hope that other classroom teachers join me there.
David:
While I do believe the wall is thin and would like it to just be torn down, I think that it may take some time. However, it can’t be too long because if we wait too long then we’ll just get farther behind. I agree with Glen that the institution needs to make a change (albeit there is others to need to changes as well). Diane H. commented: “This week staff are familiarizing themselves with the camera, imaging and analysis software, and patient database.” Do we give our teachers this long to become familiar with it? Are we taking the time, not during the summer, not on their own time, to become familiar with the technology? I’m not talking a half day staff development or taking a class (which they may or may not have to pay for on their own)? Diane’s husband is taking time during the work week to let them become familiar with the equipment they will use. Do districts take as much time or give their teachers as much opportunity? Our district does not, maybe others do. That wall would come down a lot faster if they had the right support from the institution.
Dave,
Great post today; I left a weekly department meeting yesterday complaining myself. I am often frustrated by those who simply refuse to grow when we are so close to creating real learning opportunities once again. With time I know most in the field of education will begin to find value in Web 2.0 tools. Until then, we will just have to enlighten them- one classroom at a time.
Thanks for the reference to Kansas.
A lot of teachers just don’t know! They are planning, working, meeting with parents, writing report cards and the list of things they do for their students is endless. (Now add family responsibilities to that) Until just over one month ago I was a teacher that didn’t know anything about blogs, or wikis. I’ve been taking some Diploma courses and last month I started a blog. My first wiki was 6 months ago. (Now I feel like I’m taking my first of twelve steps!)
Until teachers see the ease of the applications and have something that they can immediately use it with, they don’t take it back to the class.
Now the other thing is the technology. Our network is carefully managed by some great folks at the board office. Nobody at our school can see my blog because it is not allowed by the security. It is hard to use an application if it is blocked by your network.
I’ve been in contact with “the guys” and they have assured me that we will soon have the ability to blog at school!
I am one of the converted and I plan to continue the message!
Kim
http://2balibrarian.blogspot.com/
A lot of issues here obviously. I think teachers conceive of themselves as being about “people” and sometimes don’t think technology is about people. But once you guide people through one tool or project, I think they can see the applications and sometimes will take off with it. Students see technology as such a natural part of their lives, that they can still see that it’s about the people part of it, I think, because it’s almost invisible to them.
This is an aside, but when are you at TLA? I’m attending tomorrow.
I will be participating in a “New Teacher Induction Year Training” on Monday, April 16. I will have all of 20 minutes! There are three of us in a one hour session. I plan to present on finding professional development that suits the needs of the teacher. I am showcasing blogs and podcast that teachers can read and follow to get the needed info they need. I am using the LMS as the “go to” person for getting help, though I may be throwing a few of my colleagues (who are behind) under the truck–hope not though. My hope is that these NTI members will see that blogs are a forum for collaboration, and that they may also see the light for the potential of many web 2.0 apps in their curriculum, and not just PD. I will be showing 2 Cents Worth (professional development example), Chris Craft’s Class blog (www.class326.com) as a teaching example, and then several podcasts. Great opportunity to authentically demonstrate aggregators too. But I only have 20 minutes. Wish me luck.
“I set about whining over my blog about this, and caught myself just before hitting the submit button — because I don’t believe it.”
Believe it! Some of the most technophobic people I know are fellow teachers.
There is an exhaustive list of what teachers already have to do in their days. Even teachers who are creative and love to use technology will still have difficulty doing so effectively without time to design the way in which the technology will be a tool in the teaching/learning process. Task analysis is critical to this, otherwise, unanticipated barriers will arise in the middle of the process, take too much time to solve, and result in a failed attempt to use the technology. This is frustrating for teachers and students, too.
One way to avoid being derailed by unanticipated problems is to implement the process gradually, as a series of steps over time. This is a kind of cumulative task analysis, in which the teacher notes problems and solves them on the spot. If the problem is not one that can be solved immediately, then it can be addressed before the next project that uses the technology. If this is the choice method of implementation, use a grade on the process as a portion of whole. As I read this, it reminds me of how I learned to write a research paper—remember?
Another implementation help could be to develop proficiency of use in professional practice, then implement the strategy with students. Others have mentioned this strategy in previous posts, but it deserves mention again. We don’t remember what we sit at a computer and learn in a two-hour session. We remember what we learn to use because we need it to reach a goal. If teachers view the use of the technology as ultimately time-saving and productive, they can approach the integration of same into their teaching strategies.