Monday, July 1, 2013
Tools
As my blog-mate, Laura, pointed out, this week has really added to my Symbaloo tiles. I remain concerned about the tenor of the question posed to us, "Should teachers be allowed to take baby steps" with regard to technology. On the one hand, I have very little patience for teachers who do not check their email or who do not update their online grades. I have very little patience, too, for students who do not check the class facebook page, the class website, the class twitter feed, or who do not check the class email list for updates. On the other hand, deciding that teachers must use technology pedagogically in their classrooms seems odd to me, if not impossible in our particular school. We don't have computers for every child; we have wireless access for about 36 computers, on a good day, and even then, we have to send kids to different parts of the building if they want to use the internet. And forget watching a video online! We simply do not have an environment that is supportive of technology and are not ready to require teachers to use it in their classroom.
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I need to utilize facebook and twitter more for my classes. It would be a nice addition. I can understand your frustrations with people not checking their emails, but I also understand that not everyone is a their computer all the time to immediately respond to things. We have to update our grades every Monday, some teachers do not stick with this, but I really try to get mine in.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, immediate response is not required. In fact, in the classroom, if a teacher is always ready to jump on the latest email, then there is a problem! Our attention should be on the studnets, not on our inboxes. My frustration has more to do with spending time posting to the class fb page or setting up a wiki or a class website and having students who walk in to the classroom oblivious to the group posts. I am seeking ways to make sure that students connect and maintain their connection to our classroom communication network by perhaps assigning points to whether or not they respond to an out of class post. Furthermore, as a school, it is very frustrating when parents don't check their email or the website in order to keep up with events. The alternative is costly mailings that I'm sure no taxpayer would want.
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