Well, that didn’t take long.
Now I know this is all totally unscientific and probably doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but here are the results from the survey I posted Monday with some brief thoughts. I’d love to know what you think. (By the way, I screwed up in terms of allowing people to choose an answer AND comment…seems it was one or the other not both. So some of these “results” don’t add up to 100%.)
Question 1: What percentage of educators in your country would you guess are using Read/Write Web tools in their professional orclassroom practice?
56% of respondents said less than 10% of educators were using the tools, and another 19% said it was less than 25% (Many of the 24% of people who left comments noted that it was less than 10% in their countries.)
Observation: We have a long, long way to go. And any real tipping point is still a ways off.
Question 2: What is the chief barrier to implementing Read/Write Web tools in the classroom?
- Lack of time: 17%
- Lack of PD: 20%
- Standardized Tests: 7%
- Safety/Privacy Concerns: 6%
- Technology Support: 10%
- Lack of leadership and vision on a local, state or national scale: 18%
Observation: It strikes me that the two things I seem to hear most about, namely testing and safety concerns, came in at the bottom of the heap.
Question 3: What group do you think most needs to understand the potentials that Read/Write Web tools have for learningin order to bring about their use in the classroom?
- Classroom Teachers: 50%
- Administrators: 32%
- Parents: 6%
- Community Members: 1%
Observation: Not a great question, I don’t think. A pretty obvious answer.
Question 4: Which of the following tools do you currently employ in your professional/classroom practice?
- Weblog: 92%
- Wiki: 71%
- RSS: 77%
- Flickr: 42%
- Social Bookmarking: 53%
- Skype: 36%
- Podcast 57%
Observation: Not really surprising…again.
Question 5: In general, how much of an effect do you think Read/Write Web tools will have on classroom practice 10 years from now?
- Look the same: 2%
- Classroom practice will look a bit different, but no fundamental change: 32%
- Fundamental change: 40%
- Transormation 19%
Observation: Actually, a bit more optimistic than I expected.
I posted all of the comments to a Google Doc page. Here are a couple I found interesting:
“As a College IT Director our students are beyond the tech/web2.0/Read&Write abilities of our faculty. We must adjust…or students will choose a ‘better’ school that provides these services and ‘talks’ to them with the tools they use.”
“I think the biggest problem at my school is that so many faculty members don’t know their way around a computer well enough to try 2.0 tools. They think I’m some sort of guru because I can connect a computer (set up monitor, plug in right sockets, etc.) and can do a bit with web pages. In fact, blogging and wikis are so far beyond them, it’s a little scary.”“I am a Media Specialist, former Computer Applications teacher who could not use Read/Write tools due to filtering policies. The transfer was so that I could become more of a voice for change in the way we do business in the area of technology use…it is not the technology, it is what the technology allows students to do. This shift is ironically difficult to realize in an educational setting.”
Maybe more later…
technorati tags:blogging, education, learning, weblogg-ed
I probably should have left this comment in the survey itself…
In regard to question 3, I responded with parents but only because there was no option to choose more than one.
Around our area, more and more parents are becoming aware of web 2.0 tools because their agencies and businesses are experimenting with them. Parents potentially bring some major leverage with them to enable the use of these real-world applications in the classroom.
However, the real answer should be all of the above since we need all parties involved in education to understand what’s happening with web 2.0 and how it affects teaching and learning.
It would be interesting to know the occupations of the survey respondents. Were they teachers or folks in the tech fields? (Although by the results shown, it seems that it may not have been teachers…) It would also be fascinating to ask these questions of teachers and administrators locally and compare the results.
I work in the field of Assistive Technology, and I see a familiar theme here – it’s great that we have the tools to use, but how do overcome the barriers (many of which are similar to those listed in the survey) to using them effectively in the classroom? Implementation is one of the biggest challenges I face.
Will,
I am the media specialist whose comment you chose to include in your post. I am in Northwest Georgia, and I am looking forward to hearing you at the Georgia Ed. Tech. Conference in a couple of weeks.
I have read your work for quite a while. I use you as a reference frequently. I am working on finding reasons why filtering is overdone in so many school systems. CIPA is plainly vague (mostly concerned with images not verbage), so as not to restrict access to information.
Two things strike me; 1) not many teachers are familiar with the CIPA (or DOPA) contents, and 2) school leaders and Tech Departments find it easier to restrict than to inform and train teachers. In the long run, it is the students who suffer, and suffer being ill-prepared for their future.
I hope to meet you in Atlanta. Thanks for inspiring so many of us.