Teachers are missing out on a huge resource because of districts reckless and blanket policies involving the blocking of many sites. The reason that this happens to be my current soap-box issue of choice is because of an article that I came across entitled The World's Largest English Department. It began by describing a pretty typical situation of a brand new teacher stumbling across The English Companion Ning out of sheer desperation and how it saved the day. She posted her situation on the site and less than 12 hours later she had sixty responses ranging from sympathy to advice. How amazing would it be if she could refer to this while sitting at her desk during planning? It would save time, energy and probably some sanity. First year teachers often feel isolated and confused. Often, they do not ask questions or seek advice because they do not want to be perceived as "not knowing what they are doing". In addition to tackling their new district's curriculum, they must also learn the ins and outs of their school environment. It can be daunting and depressing. It is important to be reminded that you are not alone. Also, I think it is important for veteran teachers to be reminded of their first few years and to expand their own knowledge with advice and suggestions from others. Our peers are often our best teachers.
The article also lists some excellent Web 2.0 resources geared toward teachers. As most teachers will agree, free=good.
For 14-years I watched districts struggle with what to do about bringing the online world into the classroom. I was fortunate enough to begin my career in a district, ABC Unified in Cerritos CA, who wisely put an educator with computer lab experience in charge of the district's technology plan and group, with the IT personnel working for him and not visa versa. He said that it was our job to push the technology and it was his job to make it work. Contrast that with the next district I worked with who put an IT guy in-charge and made it his job to lock everything down and our job to live with it. Guess which was the more innovative, fun environment to work in?
ReplyDeleteAfter watching wave after wave of students come into my labs, size up and defeat almost every barrier laid in front of them, my belief was confirmed that it's better to teach them how to be good citizens on the Internet and have a sense of ownership for their use of the 'net than to try to wall them off like they were living in some gulag-state. You want to talk about collective intelligence, watch a roomful of eleven-year-olds figure out how to work around the district firewall in order to play a flash-based game. We are better off harnessing and redirecting this power than pretending to control it.