edubloggercon 2009
Here we are in DC! EdubloggerCon has grown from about 45 people in Atlanta to over 200 here. The topics for discussion range from web 2.0 tools (and these are THE adopters who know the doodads!) to school reform…the most exciting part is that these are educators who takes the time, pay the extra night in the hotel, and bring together serious passion and deep concern for the future of kids and the adults they will become. There is not a person in the room (or hallway, sitting on the floor) who came here to maintain what is. They are all interested in what can be, will be, and should be. There are some who are “consultants” or educators morphed into other roles, but all are here talking about the “what if” and the “why not.”
That is what makes EBC different. I am sitting in a session about the K12 online conference, an “unconference” that has happened for a couple of years and is being planned IN THIS ROOM for later 2009. How do we get teachers to pay attention? How do we avoid overwhelming people who have never heard of it?
What I wonder:
- How do we help teachers prioritize which things they MUST know, since there is so much to learn, with more every day. How do we talk about tools entirely in the context of their application and USE for learning? I am listening to people make suggestions for “packaging” new ideas and technology USES in a context that is meaningful and personal to a teacher’s situation.
- How much bigger will the gap between Group Know: those who dedicate significant time to personal prof dev and are NOT afraid to appear as a learner in from of their student, and Group O (for overwhelmed): those who are concentrating on day to day survival in an environment with little professional support, unreasonable bureaucratic demands, and personal lives that are less than “perfect”?? I see the gap growing and growing. The marvelous people who hang at EBC are often those who spend ALL their time on this stuff–and GREAT stuff! They have also continuously paid attention to new developments in both technology and in learning. Group O is like someone who has had their TV off for six months or suffered a traumatic brain injury. They are not just behind on today’s news or weather forecast. They may not even know who the president is…
- Do the people who make it to NECC and EBC have more time in their day/week to continue exploring or do they just skip sleep?
- I wonder whether the Facebook idea would help… Teacher apps: Which teacher is more like you? What is your edtech IQ? Take the quiz now… Send an edtech Bravo to your favorite teacher.
- Can we embed ongoing learning into everyone’s life? What’s the code?
Just a few thoughts (unedited and without my usual metaphors) as I eavesdrop on session 3 of EBC09 and reflect back on the day so far…
Great post, which runs into my blog topic this week about teacher technology overload and deciding which technologies are the best to recommend to new teachers. If you don’t mind, I will add a link to this post for further reading!
Comment by Shelly Terrell — June 28, 2009 @ 8:10 am
I can really relate to your blog posting. I am just finishing my second year of teaching and feel like I have been a member of the O group – Overwhelmed/Just Surviving until this past spring semester, when all of the ins and outs of daily teaching finally started to make real sense and come together. I am just starting to feel like I know how to teach well and can adjust my practices and consider adding in high tech ways of instructing.
The question that you pose about how to make those who are reluctant or opposed to learning new ways of instructing (using new tech tools) more inclined to learn is a tricky one. My thoughts on the subject are this. My principal wields a lot of weight and when he mandates something, even the old timers who have dusty lecture notes and stick with them, must comply. We have a tech coach who is a resource for teaching the teachers how to implement technology in the classroom. We are in school for 10 months, so what if the tech coach taught a different technology lesson right after school each month with 50% attendance required. In that way those who were interested could pick up 10 new skills and those who were opposed to learning would be required to choose 5 new technology skills to learn. This way there would be choice – you can choose when to attend and which 5 to attend and choose skills that would be most beneficial to your area, but no choice in that 5 sessions must be attended by the end of the year.
The principal made a tech requirement already that all staff be certified in basic computer skills (called the Tech Certificate) by the end of last school year. He assigned those who were no in compliance to a vice-principal who made sure that all their “charges” were in compliance by the end of school.
Being relatively new to the profession, I may be way off base or you may say that this has been tried and failed. It seems like a possible solution, let me know what you think.
Comment by Maureen Brittingham — July 1, 2009 @ 9:55 pm
Another way that tech teachers and veteran teachers could learn from eachother is by teaming up for a type of “tech wars,” a type of collaboration that speaks to the competitive side of all of us. Perhaps every team could be assigned a tech project to complete and present for professional development. The team that makes the best presentation wins something (food is always good, or free time covered by someone else-like an administrator). The problem with this is that there has to be a “carrot” for doing it, a mandate, as I said above. I don’t know if the administration could just require this also, in a forced form of teaching/learning. I was thinking of the motivational things I use to get my students going even when they don’t want to do somethng, and competition works for many of them.
Comment by Maureen Brittingham — July 5, 2009 @ 8:32 am
Maureen,
Competition is always a great motivator, at least for middle and high school teachers. FOOD is remarkably effective. I guess we are all still little kids at heart: “I’ll eat the broccoli if you give me a cookie. Wait, broccoli doesn’t taste so bad…”
I just hope that the motivation carries on when no one else is there with cookies or get-out-of-lunch-duty-free passes. What makes teachers continue the effort is seeing the change in their students’ learning. That does get teachers fired up, even those who are quite set in their ways. So it is very important that that first “competitive” effort done in a setting as you describe be designed well and “set up” for success when tried with the kids. Otherwise, we don’t have enough cookies to go around:)
Comment by Candace Hackett Shively — July 17, 2009 @ 6:59 am