I get it. I understand the importance of schools remaining relevant. You do not have to spend any more time telling me that schools need to be using the tools that students are already using.
I have totally bought into the idea that a global audience pushes students to take pride in their work. I envision students blogging, building wikis, creating media rich content, and establishing learning relationships with students from all over the world.
Problem is…I am teaching behind a wall. Those who are in charge of our technology have a filter that blocks all blogs. Edublogs and learnerblogs come through, but only because I asked them to look into them.
We have computer labs for students to use. However, they are so locked down, students cannot even access the hard drive. All of their content has to be saved on their student folder that resides on the server. A server, I might add that is getting slammed. If students want to upload files on their wikispace, the files cannot come from the server (for whatever reason), so that prevents them from putting anything original on the wiki.
I am collaborating with a class, and our students cannot produce the same level of work as their new colleagues in Malaysia. Our computers are not only locked down, but they run Windows 98. Even web-based tools are difficult to use since we are using an operating system that is older than most of my students.
I would almost equate it with being like a kid in a candy store….with no money. Before me is a brand new world of tools that inspire and engage students. But they are all out of my reach. I can smell them, see them, and almost taste them; but they are unobtainable.
But all is not lost. It is possible to teach some of the skills, just without the tools. But not in a way that engages like Web 2.0. Sigh….
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May 17th, 2007 at 12:10 am
I can’t imagine how frustrating your situation must be. I’ve been so fortunate to be in well-funded international schools for my entire teaching career, that I’ve never really had to deal with these kinds of issues. But, you have done lots even without all the bells and whistles! How many teachers can say they have global projects going on all around the world?
I definitely think there is (to quote Clay Burrell) an “echo chamber” effect within the educational blogging community. We are all saying the same things, one after another. The problem is that we’re a very small group and everyone that’s in the group pretty much agrees with everything that’s being said in the first place….
May 17th, 2007 at 8:37 am
“Echo chamber.” That is exactly what is going on. For the past month, I have struggled with my RSS feeds. Nothing new was coming down the line. Everything I read I either new, agreed to, or couldn’t do because of the “garden walls” of our schools are way too high. I have enjoyed having a global project, because it allowed me to exercise my 2.0 muscles. Thanks for your help with that.
I think it is rather humorous that the blogging community is a small group, but we are scattered all over the globe. I think that is a testament to Web 2.0.