Our first show was off and running. As luck would have it, we are battling the elements in the form of a tornado. Despite the weather we began in interesting conversation.

At about 8:00 we got cut off as people to the west sought shelter in basements, etc.

Before we left, we started the topic of technology use in schools. Most felt that the access is not what it could be.

I have two other other comments after listening to the podcast. 1. Larry mentioned the SMART Consortium. SMART has sponsored the Ohio regional FIRST Robotics Buckeye Competition which takes place March 22-24 in downtown Cleveland. http://www.firstbuckeye.org/ SMART tells me that only one team from Lorain County participates!! First is an amazing program that taps into some of the hands-on experiences Larry talked about but raises the bar to have kids think about engineering as a career option. What can be done among the superintendents in Lorain County to have greater representation from Lorain County schools next year. Find out more about FIRST at http://www.usfirst.org

The second issues is the report of the Educational Testing Services “Rising Above the Gathering Storm.”‘ I challenge the Superintendents to make this required reading of teachers and principials in Lorain County. It could be discussed on a Center webcast. Once you read it you will see compelling reasons why the current way we manage and conduct teaching and learning MUST change and CHANGE fast. Find the Report at the ETS website
http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=e9f3d944c8b70110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=f993d944c8b70110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD

I just sent an e-mail to some folks in my school district encouraging people to experiment with the new demo technology that is being installed in our brand new school buildings; I encouraged people not to fear the technology; to click around and to employ a problem solving process in order to narrow, identify, and solve simple software/hardware problems.

It amazes (and frustrates!) me how easily some people give up when working with the technology when they run into simple problems. And I’m not talking the “digital immigrants” either. I just worked with a teacher who is around my age (I’m 29) who had totally quit and said, “It’s not working!” Actually, 3 teachers quit on the device before they called me. In a matter of 5 minutes I clicked around and found out what was causing the communication problem with the projector and laptop. I’d never seen that particular software feature, but I was able to see what it was doing to get in the way and how to remedy the situation. I hadn’t had any formal “training” - actually, I rarely receive formal technology training.

The technology is so intuitive these days - just get in there and you’ll find all sorts of neat tricks and ways to make the software do what you want - it truly is fascinating all of the cool features available to us now.

There really is no excuse for teachers and school administrators not to use technology!

Kate,
Nice post. I am wondering about the role of technology in a “flat” world. I am getting better myself, and I think there are some schools that are getting on the right track. When I read the book, it certainly appears as though technology hastens the “flattening,” but so did other things.

I think the “flattened” world is all about access. People long relegated to voicelessness now can have their thoughts and ideas considered on an equal basis with anyone else, technology has made that possible.

Technology allows people to have their views heard, and reduces their reliance upon traditional delivery modes for information.

Herein lies the challenge. If information is more readily available than ever before, this can be threatening to traditional information purveyors–including educators.

Your thoughts please.

I am so appreciative of your question, Jeff. I have not yet read the “Flat” book. I am a fan of blogging, though.

Why do I enjoy blogging?
I enjoy writing, talking, sharing and listening to others do the same. Through blogging I am able to share my ideas with the world and receive feedback - almost instantly - from wherever I am able to reach the Internet - at any time - so cool! I am doing this right now.

I think that book and scholarly journal publishing will ALWAYS be a viable format for the delivery of information, however, blogging and other open Web forums allow regular people like me to publish - share - express - talk - listen and communicate. These technology tools bring people together who may otherwise have never met. It is all about connections.

Personally, I do not fear this freedom of access. I guess that is just my personality or perhaps b/c I am a librarian and through that philosophy I am all about sharing and access - it only seems natural for us to use these resources.

Our library book circulation and usage stats are UP, Up, Up… the kids hear things from friends, read on-line, talk with friends, and then come to the library to access the materials they want. This open communication via the WWW and other sources is good for our business!

People say, “Why do we need books anymore, we have the Internet?” This is somewhat true. We purchase subscriptions to excellent database resources instead of buying books – depending on the topics. We use the free web quite a bit; however, books still are a highly used “container” for accessing information, especially fiction. The author of, “The World is Flat” obviously still considers book publishing a viable format for sharing information.

There is also the archival aspect of electronic information – here today – gone tomorrow…

Sometimes people act from a place of fear. They have thoughts of “What if the kids get information on the web, they won’t need textbooks – what will I do with these textbooks? We spent all of this money on textbooks!” or ”If we have V-tel classrooms and distance learning, they will reduce my professional work to class monitor or even worse, reduce the number of employed teachers and hire parapros to monitor the distance learning lab.” Oh no!

Educational professionals worry, “What if I no longer am the most informed person in the classroom?” Oh no!

Should we become overly sensitive to the fears of our teachers, coddling and allowing them to remain in fear-based activities?

Alternatively, perhaps we should we push them, encourage them, and help to move them beyond these fears – urging teachers to find ways to harness these amazing technologies, using the tools to improve and enhance their teaching – thus enhancing learning for children and families.

Were people this afraid of technology when Overhead projectors emerged?

Perhaps everyone should take a Foundations of Library and Information Science course. It was in this training that I became aware of my role. My professional responsibility is to teach people how to locate, access, evaluate and use information and so they become independent in their individual quests for knowledge.

We cannot stifle the learning of others because of our own fears of inadequacy – worries of becoming obsolete and devalued. Libraries are probably the oldest information brokers to address this topic.

What did they do?

The monks unchained the books, moved the “librarians” out from behind the counter and allowed regular people to borrow the materials.

We adjust.

I have not read the actual book yet! I feel bad, but I do have a grasp of some of the concepts and my comment is somewhat related.

First, I love that this blog site exists. I wish there was a more comfortable and accessible way to use this technology for teachers with students. Students are aware of it and use it effectively with each other.

Shoot, they can figure the html for glitter fonts and moving gifs in a few clicks. But few of my colleagues understands how to use these things to the educational advantage of our students and it has in effect been criminalized to a degree by people who think all of this technology is only good for MySpace and that is only good for predators. For example during one staff meeting, student websites were mentioned, being a bit of a geek I counted the seconds before the word predator came up: 38. That not even twelve months ago.

One huge thing that keeps educators in the dark is the inappropriate 100% filters required on our net access. Latest research in the Journal of Developmental Psychology suggests (my conclusion) that such filters should be reconsidered as children mature (http://www.apa.org/journals/dev/special-internet.html there are several studies there worth review.). Why do we keep ourselves and our students from learning? Why is there legislation against it instead of teaching smart skills?

Oh, here is a popular video that expresses several of the ideas about the flat world well, but I can’t access it from school because of the filter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI .

But I realize we are not alone in being handicapped by our own institutions. For example, right now I am sitting in your Center for Leadership and there is no wifi here. There are no smartboards here. There was a tech problem with presenting. This could have been overcome in many ways the easy one would be to have simply posted the pertinent information on a blog site.

Still, if that was done, we couldn’t access it from our school. Some .org suffixes are blocked. Almost every site where comments can be left is blocked. This very site might be blocked. I will check from school later and if it is not I will comment again to let you know if you are accessible to the schools within the district where you are located.

Blogs bring about problem of accountability in word uses and freedom of speech issues that people who have some knowledge of online communities already grasp, but noobs are seriously going to have problems. That issue would be great to address. The latest in netiquette is absolutely an unknown to the majority of teachers. Many still think e-mail only and do not consider things like flaming and blocking and a whole venue of different social nuances.

It would be helpful for them if and when they enter this sphere to have a guide for how to behave. You may have a comment policy on this site that I have not checked and I did not see one right away, but I can easily understand why a novice might be afraid to participate not knowing anything about virtual society.

Okay, that’s it. Lunch is almost over!

GREAT! We can access and comment on this site from our school, EHS.

I would like to apologize for my typos ^ above as well, I was trying to be complete but quick and having lunch too.

I look forward to reading the more recent blog posts.

Thanks for your comments! I am interested to see your experience with technology in schools. I fear it is typical of most schools across the country. In Oberlin, the town is debating whether to vote for a permanent tax levy that would allow for the purchase of laptops for children in grades 6-12. You can find the debate at http://www.communitydiaries.org I would be very eager to know your thoughts an opinion on the idea of providing laptops to children. Based on your experience as a teacher, would it help? hurt? where would you find the support you needed to make it an effective means of delivering curriculum.
Thanks so much for giving you time to help us non-teachers understand the challenges you face.