Tuesday, August 30, 2005
...are a girl's best friend
It seems that in the absence of diamonds, it is a laptop that has become this girl’s best friend. Is this a sad indictment on an already sad existence? Or is this the norm, something that is acceptable; expected even? I take my laptop everywhere with me. It comes to every class, it travels interstate with me, on school camps and is in the boot of my car where ever I am. In a way, this ‘notebook’ contains the notes of my life, all the originals of my blogs, photos of friends and family, school work, all of my appointments and birthdays and addresses and emails. Is this little black box, as slimline as it may be, my ultimate accessory? (and is this the smallest blog I have ever managed to post?)
Restriction free and floundering...
You would think that it would be exciting to suddenly have all of the restrictions removed that you had previously imposed upon yourself. Far from finding it exciting, I am finding the lack of restriction is feeling like a lack of direction. And this is an issue that I have discussed before. When I was in a long term relationship I felt that a lot of the direction for my life came from the momentum of the relationship. Much of my future was inevitable. I would get married, work for a couple of years, have babies etc. It seemed that my life was planned out, without any real conscious decision making on my behalf. In some ways that was the way that I liked it. I didn’t feel that I had as many choices as I might like, but I also didn’t feel that I was missing out on too much. I have floated through life until this point without having to make too many momentous decisions (none really until ending my engagement) and now it seems that momentous decisions are all I have to make. What am I going to do with my life/career etc now that I am single, living with my brother and free from the financial constrains of a mortgage? My views on all of this are changing daily. I had thought that I would like to go back to uni part time to do my honours, whilst still working full-time. I now think that maybe it would be nice to have a year to just exist, without putting more pressure on myself and without tying myself down any further. I feel as though this year I have not been able to do anything as well as I would like, but much of this probably comes from the fact that I am a perfectionist and I struggle to be satisfied that anything that I do is good enough.
I have discussed possible allotments with one of the APs at school and she is very supportive and happy to cater my allotment for my needs. At this stage I think that I would like to take on more of an administrative role at school in some way. One of the reasons that I wanted to go back to uni was to get back into the sort of research and writing that I enjoy. To hook myself back into the other side of the profession, whilst still teaching at the same time. The programs that the school are starting next year would give me the ability to do this, but to continue teaching some senior classes as well.
I think that I would also like to travel in the next couple of years, so at the moment I am starting to save and think about where and when I might like to go. But unless I go overseas over the Christmas holidays when it will be winter over there (which means missing summer here for a whole year) I will have to miss at least one term of school to make it worth my while. So I need to think and plan ahead so that I am not teaching senior classes in the year that I would like to travel.
It is funny. Before I was single all that I had that was mine was my career. Now everything can be mine again and I don’t know what it is that I want. So many possibilities and I still struggle to make a decision. It seems that the world is my oyster. Only problem now is working out which pearl I want…
I have discussed possible allotments with one of the APs at school and she is very supportive and happy to cater my allotment for my needs. At this stage I think that I would like to take on more of an administrative role at school in some way. One of the reasons that I wanted to go back to uni was to get back into the sort of research and writing that I enjoy. To hook myself back into the other side of the profession, whilst still teaching at the same time. The programs that the school are starting next year would give me the ability to do this, but to continue teaching some senior classes as well.
I think that I would also like to travel in the next couple of years, so at the moment I am starting to save and think about where and when I might like to go. But unless I go overseas over the Christmas holidays when it will be winter over there (which means missing summer here for a whole year) I will have to miss at least one term of school to make it worth my while. So I need to think and plan ahead so that I am not teaching senior classes in the year that I would like to travel.
It is funny. Before I was single all that I had that was mine was my career. Now everything can be mine again and I don’t know what it is that I want. So many possibilities and I still struggle to make a decision. It seems that the world is my oyster. Only problem now is working out which pearl I want…
Friday, August 26, 2005
The Issue of Technology (and why is everything an issue?)
It seems that one of the biggest issues in our school at the moment is the issue of technology. ICTs. Or perhaps I am the only one that sees that it is a problem.
A PD day that the school held recently on the new ELS saw us auditing our current English curriculum at the various levels, and identifying what it is that we are already doing, what the ELS is asking of the curriculum and working out where the gaps are between the two so that these can be addressed. One of the biggest differences I can see between the CSF II and the ELS is that the ELS makes quite explicit the extent to which teaching should be combined with technology. It outlines the skills students should have in ICT, and the different sorts of technologies and applications that should be used in the classroom.
Somewhat intentionally, the KLA manager gave the task of presenting the ELS technology audit to myself and another graduate teacher, knowing my particular interest in the use of ICTs in the classroom. I presented what it was that the ELS was specifying, and how our English curriculum was currently failing to address these points, particularly focussing on how the ELS talks about the internet as another form of text that students should be taught to read analytically. The discussion that ensued was somewhat disappointing to me, but not entirely unexpected.
My favourite comment : “ICT is not great, Shakespeare is great”
Closely followed by: “I don’t know why we have to hold up ICT as a “solution” to every thing, as some sort of wonder technology that is more important than anything else in the in the curriculum.”
To a certain extent that is a valid point. ICT is not the solution to everything and it is not a guarantee that students will be engaged, or that they will learn better or faster or in a more authentic way. Incorporation of ICT into our classrooms and the focus we give it IS problematic. What role should ICT have in our classrooms? To a large extent the ELS has spelt this out for us. So now the question of ‘what if’ has been answered and so the focus needs to shift to ‘how?’
At the risk of sounding like a technobrat I think that what many teachers are failing to see is that ICT is not an imposition, it is a reality. Or it is in my world anyway. The majority of my communication is done over the internet – I have email conversations and MSN messenger chats with my friends. I have two blog sites – one where I can blog about school issues and the other that I use to help me deal with the uncertainty that is my life at the moment. It is through these blogs, that are, although public property, rather anonymous, that my friends get daily or weekly insight into how I am and what I am thinking about. And through their blogs I get the same insight and am able to comment – to offer support or advice as they offer me. The internet is a tool that helps me not only to perform my job at a better standard and more efficiently, but it is a way of life for me. My students email me essays and work which I edit, make comments on and send back. I use my laptop and the digital projector to present many of my classes using PowerPoint, scanned images, photographs, etc. Whether or not people want to admit it, technology is here to stay and it is a reality in the lives of most of our students. Technology is not just a tool, it is communication, information, presentation. So why is it such an issue?
I think that there are several separate issues with technology and its implementation in the classroom that both our school and many others in the same situation will have to deal with when the ELS is implemented, and have been dealing with for some time already.
Up-skilling of Staff will be one of the major hurdles that the school will have to o’erleap in order to enable staff to incorporate ICTs into their classes, and facilitate their students using ICTs effectively and critically. One of the main reasons for the resistence to ICTs that so many of the staff exhibit is due to the lack of working knowledge that they themselves have about technologies and how to use them. Schools need to implement some sort of radical personal development program in order to pass on the skills, and therefore the confidence, in using these ICTs that staff members need.
Access to ICTs are another issue that many, particularly government schools, face. When the teachers who are willing and able to incorporate ICTs, in an effective and challenging way into their classroom, are unable to even book their students into a computer room, some serious problems arise. Many schools have a limited number of computer labs, and when these are fully booked, it is a struggle to incorporate computer based activities into the classroom, regardless of how valuable and engaging they may be.
Another problem is incorporating ICT into the classroom in a “real” way. Computers should not just be used as an alternative way of presenting something that can just as easily be presented in writing or on paper. Instead, ICT should be used to enhance the learning of students, to present to them new challenges or activities that are more authentic in their nature than many of the paper-based activities they are asked to complete each day. ICT should be incorporated in a natural and authentic way into the classroom, not as an artificial and imposed “added extra.” However this is easier said than done. In order for this to be the ‘norm’ rather than the exception as it currently is, more discussion, sharing of ideas and promotion of the possibilities of incorporating ICTs into the classroom is necessary.
So, I guess that perhaps the battle has just begun. The battle to incorporate ICTs into schools. The battle to have ICTs seen as valuable and a way to enrich teaching, and increase efficacy and engagement in our students.
I don’t know what the solution is. At the moment I am seeing the problems and beginning to think about how the ‘issue of ICT’ can stop being an issue and start being accepted and incorporated. With the schools technology centre being built next year, dealing with these issues becomes more of a priority. I am expecting a struggle. I wonder how we will go…
A PD day that the school held recently on the new ELS saw us auditing our current English curriculum at the various levels, and identifying what it is that we are already doing, what the ELS is asking of the curriculum and working out where the gaps are between the two so that these can be addressed. One of the biggest differences I can see between the CSF II and the ELS is that the ELS makes quite explicit the extent to which teaching should be combined with technology. It outlines the skills students should have in ICT, and the different sorts of technologies and applications that should be used in the classroom.
Somewhat intentionally, the KLA manager gave the task of presenting the ELS technology audit to myself and another graduate teacher, knowing my particular interest in the use of ICTs in the classroom. I presented what it was that the ELS was specifying, and how our English curriculum was currently failing to address these points, particularly focussing on how the ELS talks about the internet as another form of text that students should be taught to read analytically. The discussion that ensued was somewhat disappointing to me, but not entirely unexpected.
My favourite comment : “ICT is not great, Shakespeare is great”
Closely followed by: “I don’t know why we have to hold up ICT as a “solution” to every thing, as some sort of wonder technology that is more important than anything else in the in the curriculum.”
To a certain extent that is a valid point. ICT is not the solution to everything and it is not a guarantee that students will be engaged, or that they will learn better or faster or in a more authentic way. Incorporation of ICT into our classrooms and the focus we give it IS problematic. What role should ICT have in our classrooms? To a large extent the ELS has spelt this out for us. So now the question of ‘what if’ has been answered and so the focus needs to shift to ‘how?’
At the risk of sounding like a technobrat I think that what many teachers are failing to see is that ICT is not an imposition, it is a reality. Or it is in my world anyway. The majority of my communication is done over the internet – I have email conversations and MSN messenger chats with my friends. I have two blog sites – one where I can blog about school issues and the other that I use to help me deal with the uncertainty that is my life at the moment. It is through these blogs, that are, although public property, rather anonymous, that my friends get daily or weekly insight into how I am and what I am thinking about. And through their blogs I get the same insight and am able to comment – to offer support or advice as they offer me. The internet is a tool that helps me not only to perform my job at a better standard and more efficiently, but it is a way of life for me. My students email me essays and work which I edit, make comments on and send back. I use my laptop and the digital projector to present many of my classes using PowerPoint, scanned images, photographs, etc. Whether or not people want to admit it, technology is here to stay and it is a reality in the lives of most of our students. Technology is not just a tool, it is communication, information, presentation. So why is it such an issue?
I think that there are several separate issues with technology and its implementation in the classroom that both our school and many others in the same situation will have to deal with when the ELS is implemented, and have been dealing with for some time already.
Up-skilling of Staff will be one of the major hurdles that the school will have to o’erleap in order to enable staff to incorporate ICTs into their classes, and facilitate their students using ICTs effectively and critically. One of the main reasons for the resistence to ICTs that so many of the staff exhibit is due to the lack of working knowledge that they themselves have about technologies and how to use them. Schools need to implement some sort of radical personal development program in order to pass on the skills, and therefore the confidence, in using these ICTs that staff members need.
Access to ICTs are another issue that many, particularly government schools, face. When the teachers who are willing and able to incorporate ICTs, in an effective and challenging way into their classroom, are unable to even book their students into a computer room, some serious problems arise. Many schools have a limited number of computer labs, and when these are fully booked, it is a struggle to incorporate computer based activities into the classroom, regardless of how valuable and engaging they may be.
Another problem is incorporating ICT into the classroom in a “real” way. Computers should not just be used as an alternative way of presenting something that can just as easily be presented in writing or on paper. Instead, ICT should be used to enhance the learning of students, to present to them new challenges or activities that are more authentic in their nature than many of the paper-based activities they are asked to complete each day. ICT should be incorporated in a natural and authentic way into the classroom, not as an artificial and imposed “added extra.” However this is easier said than done. In order for this to be the ‘norm’ rather than the exception as it currently is, more discussion, sharing of ideas and promotion of the possibilities of incorporating ICTs into the classroom is necessary.
So, I guess that perhaps the battle has just begun. The battle to incorporate ICTs into schools. The battle to have ICTs seen as valuable and a way to enrich teaching, and increase efficacy and engagement in our students.
I don’t know what the solution is. At the moment I am seeing the problems and beginning to think about how the ‘issue of ICT’ can stop being an issue and start being accepted and incorporated. With the schools technology centre being built next year, dealing with these issues becomes more of a priority. I am expecting a struggle. I wonder how we will go…
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