Thing #1

I know-it's a weird title. I'm participating in an online professional development of 11.5 More Things, which you can find out about at www.library2play2.blogspot.com which discusses way to use technology more effectively in the classroom.

So my first assignment is to :

Watch this video. We want our students to be able to create videos like this. We want our teachers to facilitate this kind of learning.

The Networked Student; The Movie
( http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=64972&title=The_Networked_Student___The_Movie )

For Thing #1 - Post you thoughts about the student, the video, and the teacher and her role. Can a Librarian play the role depicted in the video?

Okay, so let me explain my experience about this simple assignment, because it gives some great examples of hurdles we come across using technology in the classroom.

I am sitting at my home computer; it is Saturday morning. I click on the link, through Internet Explorer, and my computer immediately shuts down and closes Internet Explorer because it thinks TeacherTube has a virus. Does this 3 times. Being the savvy technology teacher that I am, I also have Firefox. So I open the website with Firefox, and am told I don't have the most current version of Adobe Flash. I click to download, but must close everything else to download, then open it back up again, in Firefox. Only then do I finally get to watch the video.

This is an example of what both teachers and students often go through in the classroom when trying to use technology, mainly because school districts often block video sites and downloads of recent technology for safety purposes. Teachers often have to work hard to find ways around hurdles; many teachers just give up. That is why it is so much easier for teachers to "lecture".

I am in full agreement with the video--students want to be more active participants in learning, and become much more excited about learning when they get to structure how it is and what it is (within guidelines and curriculum, of course) what they learn. The role of a teacher (or librarian) should be that of a facilitator. This is harder on the teacher, but much more rewarding for the students. Also-this is a fairly simple video in terms of production--this could be used in any type of classroom, for any subject, and doesn't require sophisticated equipment to produce. Still, there are so many hurdles to use this technology effectively in our classrooms.

Easier said than done, as most of the non technology classrooms in my school don't have computers for student use, and many non technology teachers are intimidated by their teacher computer, still in 2009. Will we ever get there as educators?