Reflection on Summer Classes
You know, this week I’m presenting at NECC. That’s the National conference that has international attendees. Some of the big-boys from Virginia are here, including Fairfax, Falls Church, and Henrico, just to name a few. And then there’s little old Goochland. We have a pretty good reputation in the Commonwealth, but sometimes I worry.
The presentation is on quality professional development. I think we really, honestly do provide some quality training and support. But it also requires the support of everyone, including those above you. It certainly isn’t as strong as it used to be.
Last year I could actually pay teachers to attend some classes. It made it a much stronger, better-attended experience. This year, I’m having people just not show up, or cancel the morning of the session. In one class, I had one student and 2 hired helpers. Disappointing.
One case in point that gives me cause for worry is this exchange between me and a teacher in a session:
- (John) Okay, next we’re going to find some photos from the city you selected in Flickr via their Creative Commons search area. Open up a web browser and go to flickr.com.
- (Teacher) Whoa, what? A web browser? Come on, what is a web browser??
- (Another teacher) Firefox, click on Firefox.
- (Teacher) Why didn’t you just say go to the Internet?
- (That other teacher) Well, Firefox is a Web browser.
- (Teacher) Ok, never knew that! Can’t I use Safari? But that’s not a Web browser, is it?
- (John) [Speechless gaze.]
We’ve come so far in our little school division. We really have. I have some 200 blogging teachers, with at least a quarter who are podcasting. Yet, we still have those that struggle with basic terminology. And I won’t even begin to extrapolate on how three different people, among three different courses we taught, didn’t know how or what copy and paste worked/was.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
John,
You can lead a horse to water, make the water taste really good and even tell the horse he gets a free meal after, but you can’t make it drink…
June 27th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I am not sure I’m comfortable with the horse analogy here, but it is extremely rare that one person does it all. Yet, there’s a system at play that regularly encourages drinking horses. I hope to find some examples this week here in S.Antonio where the horsies know their browsers from their Internet, and drink up more often than not.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
John,
Do you know what you do to a horse who doesn’t eat or drink? You put it down. (PETA please don’t get into this) Maybe we should “put down” those teachers who won’t/can’t drink?