A few months ago, a tech director for a fairly large school district looked me straight in the eye and said “I’m not giving teachers desktop overrides to anything on our filter ’cause I know damn well they’d abuse it by going to eBay or somesuch or taking their students to places they shouldn’t.” (And that’s a quote that I wrote down right after the conversation.)
Serious.
I don’t want to make this another post about how bad the general reputation of teachers is in some places, nor do I want to make it about how much filtering is going on under the guise of “we can’t trust the teachers.” Nor do I particularly want this to turn into a State of the Web in Education type post. But as school districts around the country start gearing up for the new year, there doesn’t appear to be much of a shift in terms of the perception that teachers can’t make good decisions about using the Web, and, more importantly, that teachers should be supported as learners themselves in the classroom.
Case in point: Chicago. Read the comments the Alexander Russo’s post “No Social Media for CPS Teachers” and you’ll get a sense of how much fun it is to be a teacher there under the new district guidelines regarding teacher and student technology use. In the post, he quotes one teacher as saying
The message to me is strong and clear – innovative, tech savvy teachers should look elsewhere for employment...I guess this means that the interactive website I’ve spent this summer designing for my students with open-source WordPress is off limits. I can’t share video we create on our own. I can’t ask them to compare and contrast two of our own videos, or one of our videos with someone else’s, or two videos from elsewhere. I can’t solicit student responses on core content. I can’t post accessible calendar information. I can’t post a contact form for students who forget or lose my e-mail address but know the website we’ll use on a weekly basis. I can’t host interactive Flash tools that my students use on a regular basis.
And in the comment thread, there’s this:
I use technology extensively in my curricula. I’m just going to stop using it. In addition to the patent absurdity of the Board’s policy, I’m just not willing to risk my job.
Sad.
But the worst part is captured, I think, in this op-ed piece in the Washington Post by former teacher Sarah Fine. It’s titled “Schools Need Teachers Like Me. I Just Can’t Stay.” Aside from talking about the difficulties of teaching in the inner city, she also brings up a more general perception:
There is yet another factor that played a part in my choice, something that I rarely mention. It has to do with the way that some people, mostly nonteachers, talk about the profession. “Why teach?” they ask.
Do my lawyer and consultant friends find themselves having to explain why they chose their professions? I doubt it. Everyone seems to know why they do what they do. When people ask me about teaching, however, what they really seem to mean is that it’s unfathomable that anyone with real talent would want to stay in the classroom for long. Teaching is an admirable and, well, necessary profession, they say, but it’s not for the ambitious. “It’s just so nice,” was the most recent version I heard, from a businesswoman sitting next to me on a plane.
I used to think I was being oversensitive. Not so. One of my former colleagues, now a program director for Teach for America, has to defend her goal of becoming a principal: “When I tell people I want to do it, they’re like, ‘Really? You really still want to do that?’ ” Another friend describes her struggle to make peace with the fact that a portion of the American public sees teaching as a second-rate profession. “I want to be able to do big things and be recognized for them,” she says. “In the world we live in, teaching doesn’t cut it.”
I often feel the same way. Teaching is a grueling job, and without the kind of social recognition that accompanies professions such as medicine and law, it is even harder for ambitious young people like me to stick with it.
I know that’s not a universal impression, but there’s just no question that in many places across this country, teachers are not perceived as learners, as scholars, as leaders. They’re not supported in their own learning, and they’re not trusted to make good decisions about social Web media in the classroom. Without getting into a long drawn out discussion as to why that is, I’m wondering what we can do about it. Do social Web tools provide some opportunities for teachers to participate in ways that might raise the perception of the profession? If not in global ways at least in local ways? Just wondering…
The good news is that shortly I’ll be painting a picture of a district that really does get what it means to treat teachers as learners and support all the messiness that goes around that. Coming soon…I hope.
I have been talking about this for several years now. It seems the decision makers lose sight of that fact that we are adults and should be treated as such. Yes there are a few bad apples, but that is the case in any industry. The problem is you have non-curricular people, making decisions that affect curricular people. Well there are more problems than that, but that is one. I hate it and I wish more teachers would stand up to that crap and say NO!! I have a credential, masters, Ed.D or Ph.D. and therefore I know how to do my job and determine the best for my students.
Why are the folks who are not educators making decisions that are directly related to education? Is it because they went to school and therefore feel they know what is best for kids? I don’t tell my doctor how to do surgery, or a race car driver how to drive, so why is it okay for folks who have no formal schooling on schooling to make such big decisions? Yikes!
I hope it’s soon, too.
This is great reading to go along with my current study of the existential idea of the absurd.
Thankfully, I just came from a grad school residency (where I’m pursuing my MFA in Visual Arts) and got to talk to lots of artists who don’t see their teaching as a stepping stone, they see it as an integral part of who they are. When I told people I taught, people told me that it was awesome.
But that is a rarity. I’m always asked if I’ll leave teaching when I get my MFA, as if I must surely move on and “improve” my life after this.
As far as tech goes, I’m lucky that the district I teach in is pretty supportive of innovative uses of tech in the class. We still haven’t solved the YouTube issue or having some art websites come up blocked, but those are small problems in an otherwise supportive environment.
I look forward to reading about your successful example.
As a pre-service teacher, I’m filled with great ideas about using technology meaningfully in the classroom. Recently I asked a colleague if he was on Twitter, and he laughed at me. I offer humbly that part of the problem is that even new teachers have turned away from technology because of their perceptions (often shaped by district mandates). Some of them can’t see tools that are largely social as a means of elevating those around them. Are we losing our creativity that quickly?
Thanks for the comment Joyce. This is the part that really tweaks me, too. I talk to a lot of new-ish, young teachers and ask them what they’re doing, and the response I most often get is pretty much nothing, nothing in their classroom and nothing in their own learning. I think the assumption that new teachers will use social tools to teach with is misplaced; they’ve never learned with these tools, nor have they had any opportunity in pre-service programs to learn about teaching with them. Social tools as learning tools simply doesn’t merit a blip on the radar.
As I write this, I’m thinking I really wish the term was “learning networking” instead of “social networking.”
Like Joyce, I am a pre-service teacher; I am student teaching this fall. My graduate program required a short “using technology in the classroom” course. It was a joke: Course topics included things like how to use Word, Power Point, and a doc cam! Mind-numbing.
Most of what I’ve learned about the potential that web 2.0 applications and collaborative learning tools have for improving student development and engagement has emerged from personal explorations, webinars, and other self-initiated training. I look for opportunities to share what I learn about “social tools as learning tools” with other new teachers; we have valuable conversations about ideas and tips. As professionals, we must continue to help each other connect with innovative and meaningful ways of guiding students to learn about their world and themselves through a variety of methods, including social networking.
Will, your statement about referring to social networking tools used for purposeful education as “learning networking” hit the nail on the head. Our language can shape more positive attitudes toward best practices, and I plan to use “learning networking” when appropriate. Thanks for your insight!
Will – you ask, “Do social Web tools provide some opportunities for teachers to participate in ways that might raise the perception of the profession? If not in global ways at least in local ways? Just wondering…”
I emphatically say yes! Not just teachers, but students too. Maybe teachers and students will be perceived as “being worthy” of investing more in their success if what they do is seen as valuable, even beyond just having students learn, “what they are supposed to” – but providing service to the community. Hence my class is always undertaking projects that not only cover the curriculum, but provide quality community service along the way – a web site for a local animal park that involves learning about the animals (standards based) along the way, an ad campaign for a local group that “recycles bicycles”. And there are more examples just from my class, but this happens elsewhere too.
The point is the project-based, web tool leveraged projects you espouse are good for everyone if teachers start looking for ways their classrooms can support their communities through the web based projects they may do already and we all promote these projects as the way to go.
Think of all the good and good will that could be accomplished if we bring all classrooms to bear on the community and global needs available for us to solve.
Brian
What a fantastic idea! Brilliant!
You are one of many fantastic models for this Brian. I would find it hard for anyone to look at what you do and not see a talented, thoughtful, intelligent, creative professional learner guiding the students in his classroom. I really think if all teachers were able to be as successfully transparent, there would be an impact in the overall opinion of the profession.
Thanks for weighing in.
Brian, do you have a web site that showcases these community projects you do with your school? Or a blog? Anything? It sounded so wonderful I wanted to know/see more.
Hi Dar – yes. This is a link to our class wiki page. Note the “Our Projects” heading towards the bottom. They should keep you busy for awhile. : )
http://crosbyclass.wikispaces.com/
Hope that helps!
The history of schooling in this country if full of of examples of central powers trying to limit the dicretion of those on the ground.
No, teachers are not trusted, but schools leaders often are not, either. District offices have repeatedly tied the hands of principals with union contracts — clauses which today are blamed on the unions.
So, let’s acknowledge the full problem, not just that one aspect of it. This is not just about technology and not just about teachers. It is about regularizing, standardizing and controlling.
Of course, I do not think that we are better off without central distric offices. After all, school leaders need support, too. Rather, it is about highlighting the importance of reforming a part of our educational system that we rarely look closing at (i.e. the central office).
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It is also important to be quite careful of comparisons to other professions. I have seen few such comparisons that display a true understand of how those other professions actually work, as opposed to a fantasy spun by television of wishful thinking.
Lawyers are poorly treated. Architects are poorly treated. Doctors are poorly treated. Work in a big organization, and don’t be surprised if you are poorly treated.
I don’t mean to excuse any of this. Rather, I mean to point out that arguing by appealing to the better standards/conditions of other professions is usually going to be a losing argument.
Thanks for that perspective and so acknowledged. We’re talking about a cultural shift around learning here that to be successful in any one school or district must impact every nook and cranny of that organization.
Well… I faced these barriers for many years as a school site and a district technology coordinator. I constantly found that non-educators (District IT People) making educational decisions. There are many reasons for this, but all boils down to the fact that IT people are scared for their jobs and instead of researching and finding ways to create better access, they do the easy thing and block anything that may have the slightest bit of questionable content.
One thing that most people involved in educational technology can agree on is the fact that filters do not safe guard students in the long run. There are a variety of different ways around them and the kids will find them and share them with each other. What is the other solution? It is to educate students in digital citizenship and ethical usage, but there are always a ton of excuses as to why that can’t be done.
In my new district, we are finding ways to increase the level of access for teachers and students. We are providing wireless access to teachers and students campus wide within a few weeks. We are creating ways for teachers to have access to online tools in ways that are not blocked by the district. In the next few months, we will make it possible for all of our teachers and students to be connected 24/7/365.
I think of myself as being very lucky to be in a district where there are some forward thinking professionals.
Will,
As always I enjoy reading your blog posts and will be sharing this one with my colleagues. In just a few weeks it will be one year since you joined us at Port Jefferson Schools for our Superintendents Conference Day. Your presentation was riveting and it has rippled through our organization.
I would like to comment on your ideas about Teachers as Learners and how things are progressing in Port Jefferson. Over the course of the year we launched a series of teacher led district initiatives. As Superintendent Max Riley states, we have created a buffet of learning opportunities and we are simply asking for people to come forward and take a bite.
So, where are we? We are proud to share that many teachers came forward to take on these leadership roles. They serve as Project Owners and are spending much of their own time investing in their learning, so that they can become better and then share with others. As a district, we believe that teacher learning and student learning are the same thing and therefore make a huge investment in teachers that are willing to take the ball and run with it.
These professionals and many others across the organization are taking risks in the classroom and paving the way for their colleagues. So, what does a district do with teachers who are going out and demonstrating leadership roles at the grassroots? How do we reward these teachers? It may seem like a simple concept but we are building budgets for these teachers to continue to invest in their own learning and even budgets to invest in new technologies that they discover. After all, if they are taking the time to learn and bring this into their classrooms, who better to test these new tools.
While I don’t see the point in getting into the technical stuff, I should add that we are very open about supporting teachers in the use of social media tools. On a very basic level, I believe my job is about creating conditions that allow teachers to learn, explore and test new ideas. If we are not allowing this in our schools, where are they going to get it? I as well often speak with others about the “lock down†and “control†mentality that others hold on teachers. I think its time we all start to treat teachers as professionals. One of the things I am very interested in is Leadership and Creativity. Besides investing in learning, I believe that the most important thing decision makers should do is to get creative about their leadership.
Some info on our 1:1:
Over the last two years I have worked with all stakeholders to prepare for the start of a 1:1 Learning Initiative. It is our desire to prepare our children for the future (obviously one that we cannot predict). Therefore, we believe the most important thing we can do for our students is provide them the tools that will help them become lifelong, master learners. I am deeply excited about this initiative, but even more proud that the laptops are not the means to our end. Providing laptops for learning will brings us to our real goal, which is Universal Design for Learning. In short, I contend that we must create conditions that help students not just learn, but to learn more about how they learn. We both know that an outdated textbook and spiral notebook will not help with that. If we expect our students to function in these conditions, don’t we have to create these conditions for our teachers?
Will, I applaud you on your infinite words of wisdom and your ability to engage others in this important conversation. I would like to leave you with this very simple idea that I often ask decision makers, teachers, parents, etc…
If Leadership is a Conversation, What Conversations are you having?
Bill Brennan
Port Jefferson, NY
Sincere thanks for those kind words, Bill, and thanks for this update. It’s always good to hear from districts that are beginning to work toward change. Please keep sending dispatches from the front lines as things progress. ;0)
I think the MacArthur Foundation folks are on track to have outlined the scope of the problem by the time they exhaust their first $50,000,000.
http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/where_to_from_here/
Hopefully they’ll kick in another 50 mil then to work on some solutions.
Thanks for that link, Tom. Hadn’t seen that. Some surprising results there that fall on both sides of the debate.
Would it help if teachers had a set of professional standards that were enforced by a committee of peers?
Lawyers who misbehave can be disbarred, doctors who misbehave can have their licenses suspended or revoked.
If teachers had clear codes of conduct to follow, and if these codes were enforced by bodies of their peers, this might take the onus off people like IT managers and—marginally, at least—increase respect for teachers.
One of the reasons teachers are not valued by some adults is that their education was lifeless, boring, and not of much value. They were humiliated by adults and bullied by their peers. Why would they value teachers?
Amen!
Along similar lines, I remember meeting a former student years ago. This was 2-3 years after he had barely graduated.
“What have you been doing?”
“Pumping gas, construction, a little painting.”
“So what’s next?”
“I’m thinking of teaching.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I think that’s something I could do.”
Sigh.
can’t wait to read your upcoming post.
look like the solution, not the problem – bill strickland.
we certainly need more of that.
thanks will.
I applaud teachers who are using technology in a responsible way – for them there should be no bars or limits set. Unfortunately, there are too many teachers who are not responsible e-users and who are abusing the technology facilities in their schools. One can’t blame authorities for treating them like delinquent children. It is just a pity that the really good teachers become victims in the process.
This is why I suggested above that, like lawyers and doctors, teachers should have professional organizations of peers who establish codes of conduct and enforce them with reprimands, probations, suspensions, and revocations of teaching licenses. If teachers don’t police themselves, others will do whatever they can to protect themselves. Which do we prefer?
I concur with your suggestion.
How many doctors lose their licenses a year for poor practice?
How many lawyers are disbarred a year for professional or ethical lapses?
It’s in the ballpark of the number of teachers with tenure who are fired. Well, actually, it’s worse.
Therefore, it is not at all clear that these codes and boards really make a difference, at least not directly. And I think you entirely miss the point and purpose of the bar, which is to protect the interest of current members — not to protect the public or some abstract standards of the profession.
So, unless you suggest merely for public relations value, you need to find something else to accomplish your goal
Hi ceolaf. Well, you may be right, but
a) I’d like to see some hard data on doctors and lawyers;
b) lack of integrity is only one possible explanation for low rates of suspensions / revocations; it’s also possible that the threat of sanctions has a salutary effect; and
c) yes, in my imagination the teacher boards would be characterized by a certain degree of integrity.
What can I say?
Eric
A) Doing a quick search I found a list of all disbarments in MN since 1985. That’s about 25 years.
How many? 235. In 25 years.
I did not find any quick results for doctors, but I know someone who works on a medicare board that handles such things in a large state. The cast majority of discipline falls fall short of losing their licenses, with only a handful a year rising to that level.
I would certainly suggest that you actually investigate and research these things for yourself before suggesting the we copy them in education.
B) Such boards can only have salutary effects with regard to:
* Those behaviors which have proven grounds for significant punishment
* Thresholds of behavior which have proven grounds for significant punishment
One should also only expect salutary effects if people think there is a significant chance of being caught.
C) Integrity? That’s really not the guide in such boards. Like most regulation — governmental or otherwise — the goal is not to ensure high quality. Rather, the goal is simply to prevent the lowest quality. And in these cases, lowest is pretty damn low.
You are talking about something else entirely, something with precedent, as I understand it.
I think that I’ll address this issue a little bit on my new blog today, so you might want to check it out later.
Very interesting.
I wonder: if 10 teachers lost their teaching licenses every year in MN due to misconduct, would people think that was a lot, or not? It sounds like a lot to me. And I assume the number of official warnings / probations / suspensions would be higher than that.
I don’t have any trouble with the idea of preventing the worst behavior and assuring a minimum: I thought that was the idea. So the IT manager could open up access, and then if some doofus teacher has his students messing around in unsupervised chat rooms or whatever, a complaint goes to the professional board, the minimum standard is shown to have been violated, and a suspension or official warning or revocation ensues. That doesn’t sound so bad, as a system.
As for ensuring high quality, that’s a whole ‘nother ballgame.
I think that you don’t understand the bar in question here.
Doctors lose their licenses for showing up to work drunk or high, thereby endangering their patents lives. Lawyers get disbarred for stealing from their clients. Both lose their licenses for engaging in illegal behavior.
We are not talking about poor practice here. In fact, we really are not talking about practice at all.
An equivalent teaching board is not going care about letting kids use chat rooms unsupervised. We’re talking about…showing them “adult” chat rooms? In other words, not just negligence, but rather active malfeasance. Even then, it rarely rises to the level of actually losing the right to practice their profession.
Let me say this again: we are talking about illegal behavior. Is that the bar you want to set for teachers? Is that what is going to fix our standing, as a profession?
Ridiculous: illegal behavior is already covered by the law. I’m talking about professional standards. It’s a perfectly reasonable and understandable concept. Whether such things actually exist in other professions is irrelevant.
Anyway, you clearly are not keen on the idea of professional self-regulation, so what do you propose to solve the problem Will identified in his original post?
Illegal behavior is — by definition — covered by the law. But the question of which sorts of illegal behavior is enough to lose one’s license to practice is *not* covered by the law. In practice, that is a lot of what they boards deal with.
Sure, it’s an understandable concept. But we are not just talking about concepts. We are talking about policies an realities, too.
As for their relevance, you were the one last night at 18:33:28 who cited them as a basis for what you imagine might be useful in education, not me. If they are so irrelevant, why did you bring them up in the first place? I believe that they are quite relevant, as they serve as prior examples we can learn from — which was the point you were trying to make.
You only argue that they are irrelevant because they don’t teach the lessons you wanted them to. When you thought that they did, you were happy to cite them as a basis for your proposal.
I think that they are important to consider because they can illustrate for us some of the issues with professional self-regulation, and some of the limits. Of course, then next group to establish such a system will aim to do better, but how much improvement should we really expect? And if we wave them off as irrelevant because they are not as effective as we thought they were….well, what is that expression about those who do not study history?
Actually, I am quite in favor of professional boards in education. I just have much lower expectations than you for what they might accomplish. (Though I agree with Dan Koretz that they could work wonders in psychometrics.)
As for the problem Will identified in his original post? Do you mean, “The perception that teachers can’t make good decisions about using the Web, and, more importantly, that teachers should be supported as learners themselves in the classroom.”? Do you really want me to take that apart?
1) This problem with IT not trusting or supporting professionals in their organizations is hardly unique to education. If you think that this is simply a school or district issue, you are not worrying about the right problem. Ask attorneys who hear from IT that they need to delete old email — heck, the law is making unrecoverable email deletion potentially illegal. This is a problem with IT and the attitudes of IT. This is an issue with IT folks not learning about the business or industry they are in, and therefore not supporting the work of those who do the core work of the organization. You see it in every industry. The solution should fit the problem, and that’s IT attitudes.
2) I have a problem with Will’s formulation. Should teachers be any more learners in the classrooms than lawyers are in their workplaces, or doctors in theirs? Or nurses, architects or politicians? More than police officers? Is there something about this that makes it different or especially important with teachers?
We in education — like people in every other field — like to think that we are different and need special treatment. But that cuts us off from really gaining perspective on our problems and issues.
Sure, our students are engaged in learning, but why does that mean that we have to be engaged in learning? (Mind you, I am not arguing that we do not. Rather, I am asking what one has to do with the other, and if there’s really a causal link there.) Do I have to be learning to model a learning stance? Don’t we, as teachers, pretend all the time? Don’t we pretend to make mistakes, so that we can show how to fix them? Isn’t acting a big part of our jobs? (Or, as my college Shakespeare prof said during our first class, “OK, I lied. We do that a lot in education.”)
3) What might it mean that teachers should be learners *in the classroom*. Doesn’t that imply that they don’t know what they are doing? Is it not possible for a real master teacher to already know how to teach a unit or meet the needs of a group of students? Is that status as learner *universally* necessary for excellent teaching? (This actually looks like part of #2, but I’m on a roll.)
4) Does supporting teachers as learners even *require* unrestricted internet access? Is this really the example — or class of examples — that best makes this point? When we talking about support the professional growth and development of teachers, is the filtering of useful websites really one of the top few issues? What about time and scheduling for working with colleagues? What about the culture of “close my own door and do my own thing”? What about the lack of interest in the topic of the big aims of education? What about the lack of discussions of how the different content areas might mutually support each other? What about teachers who are happy to admit that they cannot do things that their students are expected to be able to do for other teachers? What about the widespread lack of any kind of vision or strategy for district or school professional development activities — some kind of analog to the standards or frameworks for our students?
You want more?
I’m not at all convinced that Will has really identified the the real issue here. However, he was pretty clear when he wrote, “I don’t want to make this another post about how bad the general reputation of teachers is in some places.” Your proposal of professional boards is aimed at just issue, and not at all at “supporting teachers as learners in the classroom,” Will’s nascent description of an issue he laudably struggling to outline.
But what’s my answer? Well, it’s nothing so simple or easy as “establish a board.” We are talking about cultural change here. We are talking about the culture of schools, the mindsets of teachers and the basic conceptions of school and district leadership. There’s no quick, simple or easy answer there. Wise and enlightened leadership will do better, and we need to support the development of true professional and educationally minded school and district leaders.
As for the IT issues? We need to kick their asses, just like every other profession. We need to make clear who works for whom, and that they need to supporting organizational goals, not their own. They should be embedded amongst those who do the core work of their organizations, attend their meetings and observe their work. The more we separate them or ignore them the less responsive to our needs they are going to be.
Starting at a new school district, I just found out that the following sites are blocked:
Edublogs (teacher moderated blogging space)
Ning (social networking template site)
Gmail
Seriously, Gmail is blocked now?!?!?! I’m with you, Will. Teachers need to have more imput on sites that can be used for educational purposes, otherwise we’re blocked from trying anything new
Gmail is blocked for us right now too, but everything else is open. Not sure what is happening, but I believe that will be fixed in no time. It is something to do with personal email, but I think that is just a glitch for us to fix. I am so lucky!
I have seen all ends of this institutional behavior for many years. I have seen a school district institute a dress code for all teachers because of one teacher’s outlandish and inappropriate dress and I have seen a principal create a truly teachable moment with a student who used a position of authority to store inappropriate documents on a school server.
We can work with the emergent technology and its attendant ‘affordances’, but it seems to depend upon the good will of a few. It turns into a permission as opposed to a right. How can appropriate and sustainable learning practices emerge in this variable of stew? I guess it can in some places, but mostly it can’t. Fear and control will doom schools. Perhaps they should die if all they can do is lay down rules and expect obeisance.
Why be a teacher? If you’re not “filtered” watch this video of Taylor Mali (poet/teacher) on what teachers make.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU
We need more here–I have watched that video, but I am not sure what you are driving at.
Why do schools constantly make set their guidelines for the lowest common denominator and show a lack of trust to the overwhelming percentage of staff that would do the right thing? Are these the same administrators who are frustrated with their teachers for being too inflexible with students?
I am dying to see some glimpses of school districts “that really get what it means to treat teachers as learners” so that I can steal some ideas.
Has anyone come up with a basic list of what schools should be doing in this regard. I am sure that it would be a never-ending work in progress, but I would be interested.
In addition, it might be interesting to create a list of things that schools who say they respect teachers should stop doing!? (Let’s keep the theme on this to technology, otherwise we could really digress)
Will, thank you for bringing me back to the real world. We are so lucky in our district. Last year, any teacher who wanted an override had it. This year, the web is open for teachers. There are still a few things blocked, but I have full access to you tube, twitter, blogging sites and more. Believe me, I have pushed the limits this summer to see what would work and what would not, and the glitches I have run into are not a result of our system. Very cool and great that I get things done so much faster not having to override blogs when I want to post, twitter when I have a question for my PLN or You Tube when I am looking for an educational video that will support something I am doing for work! We are looking forward to having you in our district soon and showing our teachers the world of resources that are accessible with a few clicks!
Not only in America!
A few years back I heard a Local Education Authority Advisor in the UK state “we are not giving the pupils e-mail facilities in case the use them.” (Not abuse, but use!)
Skills for Life Eh!
I wonder why there has been such a change in the way teachers are viewed? I hear from old friends and new, “you still want to teach or WOW, you poor thing – the classroom must be a real battle zone now-a-days!, Why would you want to spend the rest of your career in a clssroom?” I LOVE my job! I am learning to become more “tech savvy” to be able to reach more of my students who are already sooo far advanced (technologically) than I am! Thank you for your insights, thoughts and views.
I completely agree with you. Whenever I have told people in the past that I’m a teacher, their reaction is that much disappointment. I believe that if we can get our nation’s leaders and policy holders increase awareness and create plans, such as the NCLB, that actually requires the use of technology in the classroom and teaching. Many administrators feel that they cannot require teachers to use technology. But, if they do, and all teachers come on board, we can increase our visibility in the community and show the public how teachers are preparing students for the 21st century. Obviously, education is a reflection of our economy and society and by better educating our students and equipping them with technological skills, our future state of the economy will improve. It start at a higher level and this is what is needed.
As I’ve been speaking to CTOs about the barriers to offering Web 2.0 in the classroom, I keep hearing that it’s teachers and how they need more professional development. Digging a little deeper, I’ve come to agree with what you’ve written there is an underlying distruct between district administrators and teachers, and, I would add, that many teachers distrust students and what they will do with technology.
I also believe that these policies are definitely making it more difficult for talented teachers to stay in the classroom. I blogged about this recently: Matching Teachers to Learners
distrust, not distruct
Too often administrators fall into the trap of projecting the worst faults of the few onto the many. We do it with kids we do it with staff. I’m the principal of a school where we believe in providing our staff with the wide open web. The only things we filter are porn. Everything else is open and fair game: google, youtube, facebook, twitter, myspace, have at it is our attitude. Use your judgement, model appropriate behavior, and for goodness sake don’t make the tech director or the principal the one to decide what is appropriate and what isn’t. If it isn’t appropriate I’m sure to hear about it and then I’ll come find you and make your life miserable because we’ll that’s what we principals do. But I’d rather spend my time policing the village idiot (and every staff has one) than approving url requests from aptly trained well meaning teachers.
We need to move beyond the fear mentality. I’m personally much more frightened by my fax machine. Who knows what will come spitting out of it at any minute and I can’t filter it. Be afraid…… be very afraid.
I graduate in May 2010 with a BA in history/education and am retired military. Can I come teach at your school?!
I’ll keep this simple…
1) I’ve been saying publicly for years that this is an issue of professionalism and the work environment. Unions should be taking this seriously.
2) I have urged ISTE FOR YEARS to create an advocate (dare I say?) Standards for How a Computer Should Function When Used by a Professional Educator or Student. They love making lists of “thou shalls” but refuse to take a stand on the single issue that undermines any other related to technology use in schools.
Send Don Knezek at ISTE an email and ask him to issue a policy statement and advocacy at the federal and state levels. Don’t buy another ISTE product or pay your dues until this happens.
3) So much for the “overwhelming power of teacher unions and tenure.”
We MUST use technology in spite of silly filters. We MUST risk our jobs – the kids in our schools are our future – dare we risk them for our own comfort? I’m not willing to do that. I will continue to risk my job everyday by using technology, especially that which is banned. I don’t know about the rest of the teaching profession, but I answer to a higher authority. I just am who I am. In the words of Chris Lehmann, “We can’t let fear stop us from doing the right thing.”
All too often, a teacher with internet knowledge/skills is viewed as “suspect.” WHY would he/she have those skills, if not for skeezy purposes? Check the rubber room of almost any distract; a goodly percentage of teachers in there are there for knowing “too much” about the internet.
I totally agree with you, as a teacher myself in inner-city Baltimore, I’m always asked the same questions, so why do you do it? You can be making so much more money for the hours you put in? It’s quite sad that our society here in the states sees educators the way it does. In countries such as Finland and Sweden, public education is phenomenal. This is because teachers are respected as if they were doctors or lawyers, thus creating a system where some of the smartest people out there want to get into this profession.