I felt kind of dazed and confused last night--so many programs and possibilities flying at me that they all started to blend together into a technological tsunami. I do think there are many practical applications for Skype and video conferencing in classrooms-- kids and schools are so disconnected from the "real world," and with budget cuts, opportunities for field trips will undoubtedly be waning. It's a great way to get "experts" into the classroom, and to get kids out into the world without having to spend any precious funding. I guess I'm a little more skeptical about the file sharing Prof. modeled with her daughter via ichat. I think it would be AWESOME between professionals, but with all of the firewalls and blocks that schools routinely put on, I can see it really bogging down or falling apart as a classroom application. "Permission denied" for this, "access denied" for that." That's kind of what I'm envisioning...
I know we are the next generation, and we need to think outside of the box if we expect our students to learn that skill as well, but I think what prevents a lot of current teachers from attempting anything fancy like video conferencing are all of the technical impediments, like clearing it with the elusive technology person, the principal, the school board, letters to the parents, etc...I know that's how schools work, but human nature being as it is, I can see how teachers get frustrated and just take the well worn path of least resistence.
I know Prof. M-G kept noticing that I looked lost in class last night, and I think what she saw was the skepticism on my face. I'm trying to reconcile all of these fabulous ideas and possibilities with the realities of how schools operate on a daily basis. If I'm being completely honest, I'm anticipating being overwhelmed in the first few years of teaching, and to compound that by attempting to implement technologies that I have a VERY superficial understanding of myself, seems daunting, to say the least.
I want to drink the technology Kool-aid, I really do, don't get me wrong, but I think I need to be very selective about which ones I choose, b/c at the end of the day, there are only so many hours I can spend bumping into the walls trying to learn new things when there are piles of papers to be graded or written.
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Haha, technological tsunami. That is the truest depiction of technology I have ever heard. YEAH. But I think on some level we were all confused. That was a lot of info whizzing past our heads fast. I mean when I'm not sitting there excruciatingly going thru a new technology step by step, (I find at least) I learn absolutely nothing. I mean it's different for every person but I think that when it comes to learning a new technology we have to use the program ourselves. I mean, it didn't help that I had no interest in Elluminate, but I learned nothing through the interview and preferred playing on that Google sketch-it....Is that what it's called? It was interesting; it reminded me of a CAD program. Or the SIMs. haha. I loved the SIMs...
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily want you to drink the cool-aid, I want you to be discriminating. Some things are better done with out the technology. Some of the technology will only be used with students at home for the time being because of some of the obstacles. I think some of those struggles will start to change as the administrators retire and younger ones replace them that have grown up in a digital world. Keep a healthy skepticism but don't feel that you need to know everything to use it or you may never start.
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