To Tech As Jesus Did

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I give regular 20-minute technology presentations to the faculty at my school. These “Tech 20″ presentations introduce people to (usually web based) applications and techniques, usually with a classroom emphasis. I am extremely gratified by the number of people who regularly make time to attend (though I can never tell if they come for me or for the cookies I serve).

The attendees are a true cross-section of the faculty population. New and experienced, older and young, and from all disciplines.

Recently, however, I have have been thinking about the ones who don’t come.

Now, I need to clarify this reaction. I’m not moping about people not coming to see me (at least I don’t think I am). Nor am I being moralistic that they should want to give up part of their lunches (at least I don’t think I am). Rather I’m wondering why a teacher wouldn’t come to sessions designed to expose and teach them about technology for their lives and for the classroom.

Am I covering stuff that they already know? Perhaps, but my discussions with individuals don’t seem to prove this out. Teachers as a whole seem somewhat unaware of the tools and techniques of web 2.0. Interestingly enough, there are many younger teachers who don’t attend. I had thought that they were too advanced for me, but their teaching doesn’t bear this out…nothing beyond PowerPoint. While I’m sure they are more conversant with tools of social networking than the veterans, I don’t see this affecting actual instruction.

I think that the reason is that many don’t see any of this as affecting them. These tools are great for those who use them, but there is no reason to integrate them into their already complete set of teaching tools. Teaching will be the same for the rest of their careers whether they are mature veterans or new to the profession. Technology is just one more fad that will pass, leading to another fad.

This is the tragedy of our profession. We are teaching in the last days of Pompeii, and we will be turned into sleeping statues of ash, monuments to persevering ignorance. Or maybe we are like the frog swimming in heated water that does not recognize the danger until he is cooked.

Perhaps neither of these metaphors is right. I think that many see that there are radical changes to the educational system coming, but they are paralyzed by inability to see where it is going and what they need to do. The variety of tools demonstrated in these sessions can excite people, but it can also make people feel unable to keep up.

So as I design workshops for the coming year, I’m going to think often about the people in the empty seats.

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When I was posting the podcast in the last entry I stumbled into a familiar problem for me. I’ve made several different types of recordings and posted them in different ways, but never a podcast. So I did it the way I thought I should and it DIDN’T WORK. Tried another way with the same results.

OK, I’m a digitizen, I can Google directions. Great…let’s read this…huh? Well, I’ll try a different link…wait a second this is telling me to do something different…OK, I’ll try this…nope. OK this site just wants me to buy something. What do they mean by that? OK, here’s some free software…this should do it…what, this is harder than the directions…AAAAAAHHH DIE DIE DIE!!!!

Ultimately I posted the podcast, and it works, but not exactly the way I want it to.

The thing is I don’t think the direction pages were wrong. The problem is with me. I know a lot about technology, including some fairly advanced topics, but there are HUGE GAPS in my knowledge.
It’s like I understand tech from A to Z (that’s probably overstating it…more like A to Q), but I never learned C, F, H, I, M, and P. Like most in my generation I’ve learned by doing (and usually not reading directions), so there’s no system to my knowledge.

The problems with my “system” are many. Many times I am ultimately successful in doing what I want, but it’s not the best or more efficient way. Likewise my stumbling around approach often makes it hard for me to remember how I did it when I try the next time (too often someone asks me to show them how to do something and I can’t unless I sit at a machine and dither for a bit). By “bleeping” over the unknown terms and concepts, I’m also blocking my progress.

Sometimes I wish I could take a beginner’s class. I’d be the person in the back of the room continually muttering, “Doh, why didn’t I think of that!”

I don’t think I’m alone in this. The nature of the web has encouraged autodidacts. Many of the students we teach will be in the same boat. So while we will be able to assume a great deal of tech knowledge and proficiency in our students, we have to remember that they too probably learned the alphabet with some letters missing.

P.S. While I wrote this entry in a Starbucks, a man sat near me and took out his netbook. We looked at each other and nodded knowingly. This IS the future!

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“How do we stop this?”

I’ve been thinking about this post for a long time.

Living in a changing time is scary, particularly for those of us who were grounded in the previous era. Every challenge to the status quo by new technologies immediately brings out the inner “grumpy old man.” I’m never sure which change will be the one which brings down Western civilizations and all that I hold dear, so my first reaction is to shout “Get off of my lawn!”

I am ashamed to report that about 20 years ago I went on a rant in a department meeting about how computers were going to ruin the whole nature of teaching, so we couldn’t let our students compose essays and papers on them. I was completely right and completely wrong at the same time. I was asking “How do we stop this?”

I still have this gut reaction as the classroom and school setting continues to evolve; however, I’ve tried to change the question. Instead of asking “How do we stop this?” I try to ask instead

“What does this mean?”

What does it mean, that students have cell phones with them all the time?

What does it mean, that we find so many examples of students copying material from web sources?

What does it mean, that students communicate via social networking sites?

What does it mean, that students send inappropriate instant and text messages?

“What does this mean?” is non-judgmental. It makes no value assumptions about the resources or the students who use them. The question opens me to information and allows me to address causes rather than effects.

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