At school they offered me the possibility to be the Coordinator of Technology for the Teaching of English. This means implementing new technologies something I have always dreamt of doing.
Today I had my first meeting with the Director of Studies and the English Coordinator.
My idea is to incorporate Wikis, Blogs, , Podcasts etc. many of the things we learned in this great workshop.
Well I sat in front of the computer that was in the Director´s office and entered my wiki link. As I showed them all the aspects of the wiki I realized that the computer was very slow and it was not updated. Therefore I couldn´t open many blogs and my podcast. It was impossible to show them every single tool I created for the meeting which took me a lot of hard work to create.
The meeting started and the questions they made were the following:
- How can you be sure that students won´t write dirty stuff(this was the concept they used)
- Who manages and reads the blogs?
- Kids can never be left alone in the computer lab.
- What happens with students that don´t have a computer home how can they follow your subject?
- If computers don´t work what will they do?
- You need to spend almost two months teaching how to use all the new tools and English practice will only be possible later in the year.?¡?¡?¡
- What´s a blog?
- What are yahoo groups?
- I want it to be exam oriented not to be a open classroom.
- You must correct every blog entry
- You must support the teacher and use technology as a means of allowing the teacher to improve her students practice for International exams
- What´s a wiki?
- What about assessment?
- There will be two student´s per computer how will they work?
- What´s a podcast? But we can´t incorporate them at school because we don´t have loud speakers.
- Plan your classes very well because if not it will all be a waste of time . My question what is the wiki for???
These are all the questions I can remember at the moment. I really, really hope all this time and effort is worth fighting for.
Which were the drawbacks you encountered when you tried to implement new teaching methods?
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wow! I am so glad you listed these questions. I believe it really reminds us how people feel when they speak honestly. So often, people just say, well it would be great but I don’t have time to learn all that, when what they really mean is what you heard and recorded in your blog. Thank you for taking the time to jot down the questions! laine
Dear Jennifer, congratulations on such a great accomplishment. As you said, a dream come true. You do seem quite young from the photos I have seen here and in the other EVO sessions, so this is a great start for you in something you love doing.
It must have been quite frustrating to have worked so hard to prepare all the sites you wanted to show them and then not to be able to convince them with tangible proof of the marvels that can be created. But that is technology, especially in our Latin American countries.
As to the questions, they are all very appropriate to think about and are expected from people who are unfamiliar with this way of teaching and learning in a more collaborative and sociocultural context.
All the best, Berta
First, I think it’s great that you have the chance to become technology coordinator! I think that these workshops and such forums such as LwC YG really can open doors, as I’m experiencing myself!
But the barriers made up of ignorance and fear of technology can seem too high to overcome. I think that the idea of one step at a time is a good one.
By starting small and letting the school grow into the technology you will encounter less resistance, and be able to answer more questions with experience. Yet, it can be so difficult to be patient. I tend to want to do everything at the same time.
When I am in the similar position to have to answer such a long list before implementing technology, I’ll be back to ask you how you did!
Greetings
Illya
Great list of questions! I’ll assume that these are the sirts if questions lurking in the back of my teachers’ minds and try and address them proactively.
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