Although I previously worked in an educational environment as a teacher and a technical support personnel, I never saw the connection between the two entities. I just thought that teacher taught with the technology tools given to them by the district; whether it be computer; technology a/v equipment, software training, etc. and the techs just fixed it or made it ready to use for them. Now I see a big difference than what I thought before.
From learning about Web 2.0 tools to learning Cyber Ethics and about intellectual property, there is much to be taught to both sides, the teacher and the tech supporter. And ultimately to pass down to the student/learner. I knew that teachers had to at least have competencies to, what we use to joke about as tech support people, how to turn it on. More so how to connect and get it started. But what I have learned now is that we are in a mix of generations now that many veteran teachers have resisted or not taken in learning computers and many pre service teachers are like us and have grown up around computer and not fully prepared to use them in the classroom to students who expect that, being that they were born into this digital age. I now understand it is not a joke to have the teachers, administrators and staff using technology in whatever way possible to get our new digital learners adept and ready for the world they will lead into once they graduate and that they are evaluated using the Texas STaR chart.
For me this was a difficult transition of what I was used to almost 20 years ago learning from a text book, library and writing using pen and paper. The only time I was ready to use a computer was when I was ready to do a final draft of a paper. Now about the whole process of learning in by the computer and no hard copy involved. I am still stuck on the old premise and I had to print everything out to read it and highlight particular point of interest to me and then look back on them and post them using our Web 2.0 tools. I think I am about half way there to where we would want out student to have 2nd nature. I almost feel lonely doing this because there isn’t a physical class setting involved. Being a technology oriented person I have adjusted and learned how to use the tools and how to coordinate with my cohorts in completing assignments and asking questions. Even though we do communicate and collaborate via our wiki’s and emails and blogs, I still feel like I am floating in cyberspace along with the rest of the world of strangers but with a small strewn out group in the big cyberdome.
What I am going to take with me from this is that technology is still growing and the global community is going to continually change the shape of education and just like the tech support person I am, I will have to keep up with all the latest technology changes in education just like I do with all the latest computers and gadgets and how to fix them. My son who is a 3 year old “digital native”(Prensky,2005/2006) already knows how to navigate around an iPod Touch to get to his educational games and knows how to navigate on my laptop to get to his PBS Kids educational website and TV on my computer. It startles me some that he has a 9 year head start on me because technology has always been around him. And I didn’t get to use this stuff until I was 9 years old and it was on a very limited basis and not common place like it is today. I think I am also jealous of him. But as technology grew I got in at the right time to soak up what was going on with it and use it to my advantage. The knowledge I brought into this class was asset management. One of my favorite parts of my jobs where I have dealt with asset has been asset and property management. Through this course I got a little better idea on how schools systems use theirs and ideas on how to improve on future asset tracking.(Holub, 2007)
I think learning with others who have learned previously the same way I learned has helped me adjust, many of us ran into similar difficulties and were able to share with each other possible solutions as well as viewpoints on what we have read about. Even though we are far apart, we can still communicate in an instant. Much like passing notes in a real world class but it’s email now. This is just a shift in the way kid now will receive information and we are going to be the “Connectors” (Gladwell,2002) to disperse this information to them in a high tech fashion that they are use too.
Prensky, M. (2005/2006). Listen to the Natives. Educational Leadership, 8-13.
Gladwell, M. (2002). “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” [Audiobook]
Holub, P. (2007). Assessing Your Assets. Technology and Learning, 16-17
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