Tech Heads and Geeks

I have, for most of my career, been somewhat of a Tech Head Would-Be Geek. I have made some of these same arguments to Resisters (people who are not progressive in technology use) and have also found myself preaching to the choir sometimes about the need for a more progressive approach about using the internet and other technology in the classroom. I also used persuasive arguments, although I did not know the full extent of the startling statistics in "Did You Know" and "What If."(see link: http://www.drjansblog.typepad.com/dr_jans_blog/2007/07/michigan-school.html)

I am not a mover-and-a-shaker type, more like a moody independent thinker type, so I have never tried to force my opinion on others; I just always tried to be on very good terms with the technology coordinators and computer personnel, not to be manipulative, but because I sincerely coveted their knowledge and power to make changes.

Why? It is imperative to learn to teach in ways that use the internet because not doing so would be, speaking metaphorically, like using a saw and hammer only in woodworking when you had a whole city block of sophisticated tools designed for every imaginable job related to wood. It would be like using a quill pen when you had a printing press. Except for making students better at calligraphy, a worthy art, but hardly the objective in most cases, it would just occupy most of their time in calligraphy, not thinking. Of course, people obviously did think when there were only quill pens, but the printing press revolutionized the world. Why hold students and teachers back? World problems, such as climate change, disease, famine. tsunamis, and a million others, will not wait while we bite our fingernails wondering if we should let students use the risky internet. Of course it's risky, but so is the alternative.

I plan to use the information I glean from this blogspot to impact my teaching in the following ways:

• Be bolder and work with the progressives.
• Don't be annoyed by the ever-present Resisters, but don't let them jade my thinking. Use the argument with Resisters that is often used with gun-control fanatics: If they take guns away from honest citizens, then only the criminals will have guns. The same is true of the internet. It is used for corrupt and frivolous purposes daily, so why not use it constructively for education?
• Learn as much as I can about new tech gadgets and gizmos to try to stay less than twenty steps behind my students.

Top of the World

I just returned from a teaching assignment in Barrow, Alaska. My dear husband agreed to go there with me for a 9 month teaching term. I arrived just in time to fully enjoy the 3 months of light followed by 3 months of darkness. Always believing I was a strong person, I wasn't afraid of this amazing experience. I should have been. In December I came down with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which is a condition brought on by no sunlight. It wasn't a great experience. I finally threw in the towel and flew home the latter part of February. In spite of the SAD, it was an amazing experience to be at the northern most point of the USA. I truly loved seeing the Arctic Ocean change from August through February. I also enjoyed getting acquainted with the Inuit culture. The slideshow North to Alaska are pictures from the Arctic. Enjoy.

Blogspot's New Features

I found it first annoying, then interesting, that I had to have a google account to use e-blogger now. I've had a google account for several years, but I forgot I had it and forgot my password; therefore, I could not use my old password. Consequently, I had to create a new google account. I experimented with this site as far back as 2006 but always had trouble getting back to the dashboard. I'm hoping it will be easier this time around. I've never been a genius with this sort of thing, but I have always felt at least competent. I find this site challenging to say the least. In addition, I used this site as a hyperlink from a powerpoint tutorial some years back and found it frustrating that I could never figure out how to program my site so that it was not possible to go to the Next Blog feature. I'm sure it's quite easy. I just couldn't figure it out. Maybe it's been streamlined now so that feature is easier to find for beginners. I actually like the site; I just need more experience.

Progress or Big Brother?

Progress or Big Brother The quality which I liked best about www.leadertalk.org is the progressive, pro-tech tone that resonates throughout the blog site. Most of the bloggers seem to advocate moving forward with wise use of technology as opposed to remaining in a stalemate as many schools have done since the technology revolution.What I liked least about the blog site is the almost bandwagon tone in some blogs. Although this comment may seem to contradict my first paragraph, read on. I consider myself pro-tech, but I know, duh, that technology will not solve all of the problems in our schools. Technology is a blessed event, but unwise use of technology could create a very intimidating “Big Brother.” Keep education human and use technology, not the other way around.

First, I found Black Belt Musings to a Bag of Ice, submitted by Kevin Riley, refreshing because of the unique metaphor he used. Comparing educational levels to the levels in Tae Kwon Do, he comments:

"The grade level system that we inherited from the Industrial Revolution has been in place for nearly 150 years.. . .In Tae Kwon Do if you promote a student who has not mastered the competencies of the curriculum, they will be thrown in with advanced students with whom they cannot compete. One day they will catch a flying heel kick on the side of the head and it will remind them that earning a black belt is not a race.”

Although I cannot see the benefits of a fourteen-year-old being in the same math class as a ten-year-old (obviously, I have been conditioned to social promotion), I thought Tae Kwon Do was a colorful metaphor. I’m sure Kevin has thought of a virtual classroom for overage students as an alternative to a humiliating “placement” in a traditional math class with younger students.

Second, I liked Credit where credit is due . . . BLAME where blame sits, by Andrew Norris, mainly because I childishly liked the YouTube video at the end. Although I agree with some points made in the blog while I disagree with others, it kept my attention and led me to wonder if the insistence of some people to stay on their laptops during a presentation by a colleague is less due to the presenter and more due to the change in what we perceive as meaningful in this techno age. Has the use of technology made it easier to relate to a computer screen than to a live person? Kind of Orwellian, I know, but at least it made me think.

Third, What is our “moon shot”? An educational reform catechism, by Matt Militelo, was also an intriguing blog. Again, I’m a sucker for a colorful metaphor in a title. Comparing the next leap forward in education to our “moon shot,” was a clever use of words and ideas. The blogger uses the metaphor both positively and negatively. First, he says that our current and unattainable “moonshot” is NCLB. He later uses it to chide by commenting that “To achieve our educational “Moon Shot” we need to first know where we are going.” I couldn’t agree more.