Is it deja vu all over again? It seems as though I've traveled this path before; images, sounds and text ... only this time packaged with 3 of man's favorite activities - sitting, eating and thinking, all the while utilizing a new set of powerful tools that allows the creation to be changed on a whim, but accessable this time to the entire planet - a world without borders, a world without boundaries.
I am a stranger to this world, an immigrant of sorts. At this point, I really only know that I don't know much; but that alone is progress. I am already permitted to have all the time there is ... a minute will always be 60 seconds, a week will always have 7 days, and so forth. How I choose to fill this time is all the freedom I have.
And so, to be productive. To fill my alloted time with as much meaning as I can, or as I choose. And, to share that with others - a give & take of sorts ... and so with this, I begin my first post, on my first blog.
David, your article packs quite a wallop. To be able to connect, to create, to communicate and to collaborate describes the world we live in, or at least the world we think we might like to live in. And yet, at this point in time, the package of tools collectively described as Web 2.0 has little or no impact on the district in which I work, or on other districts that I am familiar with, and there are many, many reasons for this.
Consider the mindset. Education itself still revolves around the Agrarian Cycle. Back in the day, kids were needed on the farm to help plant crops in the spring, and then to tend to them, and perhaps harvest some of them throughout the summer months, in preparation for the winter.
And so for the most part even today, despite advances in all sorts of technologies, school in most parts of the country continues to start in the early fall, runs at full tilt all winter long, and comes to a grinding halt in the late spring or early summer ... at which time the books are put away, and the kids are off doing other things.
Even members of Congress, and members of the Supreme Court ... traditionally break for summer!
Old habits die hard, and so it's no wonder that new technologies, new ways of doing things ... are not readily embraced by the public at large. Change is not necessarily the order of the day, and so the resources needed to make changes are not always readily available, and tradition can sometimes be a difficult mindset to work through. Let's face it, we're still Agrarians!
Your argument for using the resources of Web 2.0 to link people together, and your framework for making technology an integral part of teaching and learning are very well thought out. But getting there, ah ... that's the challenge! I guess it needs to be done, one teacher at a time, one administrator at a time, and one student at a time. At some point, the value begins to shine through.
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2 comments:
I enjoyed reading your blog. You make good points. We are still running on an Agrarian schedule. I have not ever really thought about that, thinking that we are much more urban than in years back. The district I teach in is very rural though, which leads me to believe that convincing those in the community of the importance of this will be a challenge at times. As you have said, it begins with one teacher, one administrator, and one student at a time.
Rich, welcome to a new frontier. I agree that we are creatures of habit. Traditions are hard to break. However, as you stated, we are starting with two teachers here today, who will return to our district, share our newly acquired knowledge and (hopefully) become conduits for change. Thanks for addressing some of the obstacles that we as educators face.
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