Comments on: What ICT Teachers Think…

By: Pixeltoy

Pixeltoy — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:39:46 +0000

As if! Too much hard work. They all got the new rollout whilst I took their old machines (2007). This was the catalyst fir the librarian to get motivated, especially after I showed the ease and power of Comic Life. Although, she is a die hard PC user and refuses to see any other platform as being useful. She still argues that IE is the best browser!?

By: paralleldivergence

paralleldivergence — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:55:25 +0000

So how many other teachers at your school did what you did Pixeltoy?

By: Pixeltoy

Pixeltoy — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:21:11 +0000

Roger, remember that document u made us aware of a couple of yrs back? Engage Me or Enrage Me
At the time I gave my fellow exec a copy to read and consider. Strangely, my boss had the most to say about it. She did not agree with the underlying philosophy of the piece. The other exec were glad they wouldn’t have to do anything about it (as the boss wasn’t swayed).
Then the DET announced Connected Classrooms and suddenly my boss is asking if ‘we’ are truly ‘engaging’ our students by use of a blackboard. Yes, about 2yrs after that article and the green light is given!
In the meanwhile I was scrounging all the ‘old’ computers that were meant to be dumped (pentium mmx! PIII, original iMacs). I placed 16 around the walls of my class, bought a couple of switches, cat5 cable, installed eduBuntu on all the PC’s. In a matter of days my room was a buzzing learning centre.
Was the learning of my yr4/5 changed? Definitely. Did the class tone change? Absolutely. Did the students gain anything? Incredibly so. Were they engaged? Well, not by my boss’ initial comment they weren’t- but I persevered because I knew and could see that there was a renewed interest in learning.

By: paralleldivergence

paralleldivergence — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:52:16 +0000

So very true Roger. Thanks for this important reminder that we all need to heed.

By: Roger Pryor

Roger Pryor — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:24:43 +0000

I was encouraged by a comment in Kelli’s blog following the L4L forum about ‘dealing with’ the issues related to tech failure..we got over it, for example, when the bulb in the overhead projector broke..why do we embrace any failure in the network as an excuse to disengage?

What are some of the truths of our profession?

Engaged teachers always enjoyed co-constructing sequences of good learning activities in vibrant staffrooms and celebrating successes and unpacking the processes needed to redress issues.

Engaged teachers have always been excited by the possibilities which videotape, photocopiers, VCR, fax, PC, wireless, mobile, internet, web 2…..provide

Engaged teachers feel good about it.

If we are, as so many would say: ‘here for the kids’
then, at whose feet does the responsibility for engagement lie? engaging who?

To be other than optimistic is to condemn the future of our young people without giving them the opportunity to develop solutions to enable it to be otherwise.

By: paralleldivergence

paralleldivergence — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:04:04 +0000

Hi Julieh. Personally, I think there are several factors working together that are keeping most teachers from advancing their skills with the times. You just have to look at the email for teachers debacle. Since 2002, NSW DET was ready to provide teachers with their own DET email account, but they were blocked by the union (rightly or wrongly). When the ban was finally lifted, most NSW teachers got their first work email account in 2007! And furthermore, the ban was only lifted if individual teacher could choose to “opt-out” of email. Contrast this with me getting my first email in 1989 (within the NSW Electricity Commission) and with the rest of the world and industry getting it for mainstream communications in the mid-90′s. And now that all teachers have an email account, how many can you honestly say actually use it?

We have a very big hill in front of us. While we as ICT adopters feel comfortable with major initiatives like 1:1 laptops, how many of our peers can we say will confidently move into a digital teaching environment?

By: Julieh

Julieh — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:15:55 +0000

mmm .. I’m wondering why the integration of ICT is so problematic! When we think about the massive impact of technologies into fields such as medicine (esp. surgery and disagnostics), motor mechanics, science and so on – there has been radical shifts in the core of how this work is done, technologies don’t just enhance or improve efficiencies, things are done very differently. Why not education? whay are we still fussing about the edges?

By: Pixeltoy

Pixeltoy — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:56:04 +0000

http://pixeltoy.edublogs.org/

By: paralleldivergence

paralleldivergence — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:08:00 +0000

Thanks for the link Pixeltoy. The main point I’m pushing here is that there is now an urgency to get all teachers up to speed with the present. The ICT-educator has a vital role in making this happen in all schools. If teachers are going to sit back and wait for their department to hold their hand and show them how to do it, they’ll just continue to fall behind. John Cotton Dana said it best one hundred years ago: “Those who teach must never cease to learn.”

By: Pixeltoy

Pixeltoy — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:05:25 +0000

That final quote is currently happening where I am taking deferred salary leave from. The amount of techassist and ideas “how you can use ict in your next lesson” has diminished to zero. The schools has also acquired its first 3 IWB and they are used…sometimes. Well, yeh I guess that’s how you could justify the use of a $7000 resource, just use it sometimes.
Teachers need to see scenarios. How a digital camera could be used in my next Maths lesson. How email can be used in the next literacy lesson (my students LOVE this one).
If you haven’t already, SWS has a gem of a resource which is underutilised (the counter must be stuck because that was the total in Dec 08). http://www.southwesternsydney.sreg.education.nsw.gov.au/
Step-by-step ideas for the reluctant teacher. Helped me to motivate all 5 Stage 3 teachers back in 08.
For others, the mastery of a single software package “ComicLife” opened many doors- text type writing, information skills in the Library, posters for the classroom etc.