Well, I've had a few months and a LOT of experiences to think about where we're going with this great education-technology debate, and IMHO, it's not going anywhere very quickly. The reason is very simple...technology in the classroom DOESN'T exist on a measurable/impactful scale, and likely won't...not because it's not here...it IS, as the Great Gurus of IT keep trumpeting...but because the 'mover-and-shakers' and 'money-changers' who decide what actually gets into a working class teachers hands, HAS NO CLUE, and even less funding forthcoming.
In the 'Life Elevated' (indeed) state where I teach, the mantra has been consistent for the 35 years I have been in the trenches: nobody gives a damn, witnessed by the inadequate funding (lowest per-pupil funding in the contiguous...), highest class sizes witnessed by the huge families and class sizes as a result, and the lock-step mindless perpetuation of re-electing the same numbskulls who expect teachers to do 'more with less'...and God bless us, WE DO!
A sudden, blinding, never-turn-back-flash-of-reality occurred to me three or four months ago actually TALKING (no tech, here...) to some of the gifted geniuses I teach with...it's not going to be the technology that will drive the wave of the future...IT WILL BE US!! It will be OUR blood-sweat-and-tears, as it has always been, our insight, as it has always been, and OUR creativity, AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN, that will mold the future. Hell, I can't even get my 'New-and-Improved' school district to buy me a media cable to connect my laptop to my classroom Eiki projector...so it sits idle, technology be damned.
Our movement in my high school is new, but, well, 'old school'...it is good old fashioned, roll-up-you sleeves' and get dirty education. (Oooooo...tech-folk DON'T like to hear about 'get-in-the-trenches" and actually deal-with-kids stuff)...Can we USE technology? You bet! But we sure as hell can't wait around fifty years for the powers-that-be to decide to give it to us...and the 'experts' espousing great tidings from above and beyond what great things we can be doing with what we don't have, and likely won't anytime soon, are schizophrenic...they need to take the great equipment and tech software they are AFFORDED, and the rest of us may never see, and stuff it.
My 'New-and-Improved' district is busy congratulating itself, and taking it's IT team and wives to an awards dinner, for being a leader in 'social software'...my take? Who the hell cares, and why are you wasting district monies taking everyone out to dinner when teachers don't have the tools in the classroom to show a frigging video?!
Here's my take in closing...tinyurl.com/yhj3yqh.
Here's the REAL tragedy in education...and it's NOT whether our kids Twitter or Blog...they already do, and will continue without our help. It's, fundamentally, should we REALLY be beating a rented mule about the virtues of something most classrooms, and teachers, do not, and many WILL NOT, have access to...shouldn't we be spending, first, on avoiding the continual grinding down and habitual discarding of talent like we so routinely do...
OK, IT demi-Gods-of-America...let's hear from you...and, I'm from Missouri...put your money where your mouth is...SHOW ME!!
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