Relevance and Web 2.0
Web 2.0 May 4th, 2007Today I have been reading several blogs by teachers, consultants and other techno-residents of the blog-o-sphere. I am constantly impressed and amazed by what students and teachers are able to achieve using this technology. Here are a few student blogs that are excellent examples of what students can do given the freedom, environment and tools to create “Just Yell” and “Fasion Freak”. Teachers and other blog-o-sphere techno-residents write very illuminating posts about technology and how it can be used or ought to be used in schools. Some bloggers that I find interesting are A Plethora of Technology by Barry Bachenheimer and Beyond School by Clay Burrell. Yet with all of these ideas and resources literally at my fingertips I look around at the feeble attempts I’ve made this year at introducing my students to Web 2.0. True it was just this year that I really woke up to the possibilities inherent in this interactive system, but as I sit and reflect now, attempting to renew both myself and my teaching for a new school year I am not sure what path my teaching will take.
I would like to say that I have mastered wikis and blogs and I am an innovative teacher, but the truth is that when I used this medium with my students we never got beyond regurgitation of web resources. I found myself mired in attempting to get them to not cut and paste information. I wanted them to be evaluating resources and thinking/writing new thoughts. When I did get them all to begin writing their own blogs in preparation for creating their own online science journals and projects we got mired down in the process of just getting each student an email address and a blog, let alone getting time in the computer lab for them to be able to do this. Even when I did get this done for a majority of my students I found myself giving regurgitative assignments. Needless to say I was disappointed by the results. I was doing basically the same thing with a new tool and expecting different results.
I am the designated SMART board “expert” at my school and I often tell my teachers that the SMART board just like any classroom tool will not automatically make you a better teacher. If you are a lecture only, regurgitation teacher without a SMART board then you will be a lecture only, regurgitation teacher with a SMART board. It is only a new tool. I feel the same way about using web 2.0 tools in my teaching and I fear I am not equal to the task.
When I took my students to the computer lab this year their reaction was mixed. Some enjoyed the chance to use skills they possessed in their learning process, but many looked at me as if I had taken their favorite toy and perverted it. Many of my current students come from places that have little or no internet access. They have not learned rudimentary online skills and consequently must learn to use a computer before they can learn with the computer. Its a little bit like learning to read.
I find myself faced with a different challenge. Before we can teach with this tool we must first teach the tool or nothing we do in class (or on the web) has relevance to the student. Just like students need to feel safe and comfortable in a classroom, they need to feel safe and comfortable online. This means that they they feel like they know what to do or at least how to find out what to do. In this new information age tech literacy (not just computers but things like GPS, cell phone…etc) is just as, or possibly more important than being able to read. They need to not only be able to read, but just as we teach them the structure of a language we need to teach them the structure of the web, its history, how information is stored and encoded, the difference between computer based and web based applications…. If we do not do these things as we educate our students the projects we assign them whether online or in a classroom will be irrelevant to them. They will have no bearing on their future lives. In other words we can teach in a very technorich environment, but unless we put the tools in their hands and teach them not only how to use them but how to learn the skills themselves what we teach in class will be irrelevant to their lives.
As a boarding school (grades 9-12) teacher I have found this predicament frustrating. I don’t see it getting any better in middle school dealing the reality of low incomes, limited home access, limited English proficiency and limited school access to technology. I am left with the feeling that I want to do wonderful things, but am not quite sure how to get there.
Help!
May 4th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
“Before we can teach with this tool we must first teach the tool or nothing we do in class (or on the web) has relevance to the student.”
–I would add to this (and I think you have learned it this year as clearly as I have): We must teach this tool at the beginning of the school year.
Like you, I started experimenting with these tools in my classroom only at mid-year; and like you, I found the constant distractions from technical questions aversive to the projects’ effectiveness.
This is why I look forward to next year. Before plunging into content, all of those tech necessities–email addresses, group emails by class, registration in Bloglines, wikispaces (or whatever), our school blog and Moodle, training in all of these, website evaluation processes, etc–will be done as much as is reasonably possible.
If you’d like to join me in maybe creating a wiki on which we plan this type of systematic training, I think it would be great. I’m sure other teachers would be interested in joining such a conversation.
Finally, your economic challenges made me think of Karl Fisch’s mention in “Did You Know?”–his original version–of how almost all of his school’s computers were funded by grants. Maybe grant proposals for 1:1 laptops (or second best, laptop carts) could ameliorate this problem.
Anyway, get in touch with me at Beyond School (or email me at clayburell [at] gmail [dot] com) if you’d like to take me up on the student training brainstorm wiki. I like the idea, and need it before the first weeks of school next year.
Out of curiosity, why no name in the “About”? It would be nice to know who you are.
C.
May 4th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Thank you for the courage to be really straightforward about your experiences. We are usually inundated with the message that kids are already using these technologies outside of school, why are we using them in school, how are we going to prepare our kids for the future and etc, and etc, and etc… but you are seeing the opposite and frankly, so am I. Using the computer or learning computer skills is procedural knowledge meaning that the processes that we go through and the skills needed must be practiced until we get better at them. When you think about it in that way, you do indeed need time to develop those skills with kids. Without that basic set of skills and the time to develop them with your students you won’t make as much progress over the long run. The time you spend in the beginning developing that procedural knowledge with your kids will take you a long way and pay off throughout the year. In regards to the teaching with technology, here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: most of the teachers we have in classrooms today have some sort of experience with technology - whether they only know how to send and receive email or they know how to use a Smartboard, or search efficiently. By the same token, most teachers also know something about classroom instruction and many teachers constantly search for ways to improve their classroom instruction. We need to find the best ways to link our own knowledge of technology tools with our knowledge of classroom instruction. In the end, our goal should be to improve student learning which usually means we end of needing to examine our own instructional practices. You may be interested in a book that was just released by the ASCD titled, “Improving Student Learning One Teacher at a Time” by Jane Pollock. She has been a curriculum consultant in my school district for the past 4 years. I think you’ll find some of her thoughts on classroom instruction to be what you may be looking for. I made a small contribution to the book and have gained so much knowledge through working with Jane. In any case, I wish you the best in your endeavors. You seem to be well on your way to improving your students’ learning!
May 5th, 2007 at 12:26 am
I can understand you frustration as you look at what you hoped would be a great opportunity to break free but, once undertaken, realized that it was equally restrictive given the situation. I have/am going through the same type of situation in one of my classes. Not because the students don’t have access or don’t have the skills but because they don’t have the motivation. It won’t matter what tools we use, unless we can motivate students to want to learn, to making learning worthwhile and relative and provide students with opportunities that draw them into the learning, they will do just what they need to do. I’ve found that students find greater buy-in once they begin to have authentic conversations with other students. It has been interesting watching my students write deeper and more thoughtful blog enteries for students on the other side of the globe than for me. Don’t dispair. Like all things in life, doing and trying to change is not easy and requires us to try things in different ways and thing in new ways. I read Clay Burrell’s response and believe that a wiki with different ideas might be a good idea. You also might check out the Classroom2.0 at ning.com. There is an assortment of teachers all trying to do the same thing you are doing. As we learn to do things in a new way using new tools, we will encounter road blocks. The great thing is that you recognize that there are things that you must overcome and are open to assistance. You could have given up and thrown in the towel! You didn’t and can learn from what you have done. It is doable.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Clay,
I would be glad to join a wiki like the one you are describing. I have actually been wondering if there was a course for this kind of thing on the web, but think it would be much better if we could explore it ourselves. Thank you for your comments and encouragement. I feel your pain and yet in reading your blog I am consistently encouraged
I’ll fill out my “About” page soon. I was actually just attempting to figure out how to edit it on Friday *blush*
Diane,
Thank you also for your encouragement. I will look into adding the book to my summer reading list.
Kelly,
Thanks for the reference to ning.com
I’m still looking around but it looks interesting!
Beth