ICT Co-ordinators Meeting
September 27th, 2006 by Pam McDowallI have just arrived back from our Primary ICT Co-ordinators meeting, put the kids to bed, have hubby cooking dinner (yes I do know how lucky I am!) and thought I should use this window to blog my thoughts on tonights meeting.
The presentation from Paul Smyth of RM on Glow gave me a feel for all the possibilities that Glow should create. I am particularly excited about the collaborative tools to help, as Paul said, teachers always reinventing the wheel which is a bug bear of mine! However, I do still have concerns regarding two things.
Firstly, parents coming online with this. I am not sure how far I want to go with shared information about everything. Teaching challenging pupils can be a hard enough job without being attacked (metaphorically) at every turn. As a parent myself I can see that it would be useful to have access to certain information but as my boys are not yet at school, I am unsure just how far I want to go. Those of you with kids at Secondary could maybe open my eyes more.
Secondly, I am concerned about how we are going to get on board all staff with this new technology. Of course, I’m sure there will be plenty of enthusiastic colleagues who will embrace the challenge of Glow and carry some staff along with them. But how do we get on board those who don’t “do computers”? How do we get the message to them that this will revolutionise (there’s that word again, Gordon!) the way they teach when some are quite happy with what they are doing, thank-you very much. I suppose a little at a time, showing them the benefits to their classroom, their subject, a little step at a time. Today’s mention of online report cards may be just the carrot we are looking for. Hope I’m not going negative again, it is a genuine concern for me from an authority point of view.
Posted in Education, ICT, Primary, Renfrewshire, Teachers, Teaching |
September 28th, 2006 at 1:01 am
There’s an assumption here that it’s acceptable for people to say that they don’t “do computers”. Perhaps that needs challenged? But there will be a reason for it, perhaps lack of support to change, or fear. The trick is going to be supporting people through that. Glow mentors can probably help, particularly by using their role to find out what the problems are, and trying to find ways to help.
September 28th, 2006 at 2:11 am
“Don’t do computers”??? Read: “Don’t do education in 2006″. I don’t think that’s an acceptable attitude for any educator to take and really must be challenged. It’s a requirement of life that we engage with technology, and it’s going to become more of a requirement over the future years. Surely this is a message that needs to come from Heads of Education direct? East Lothian’s HoE used the same phrase yesterday and stated that this attitude would not pass in that LA. Strong words with strong support to help people make the transition.
September 28th, 2006 at 6:35 am
I definitely agree we need to be giving these teachers support in terms of both training and time. It is good to hear of other HoEs making a stance as this is what it needs. Glow mentors will help get people on board, depending on how your authority rolls this out.
September 30th, 2006 at 4:44 am
I think we walk a bit of a tight rope on the “don’t do computers” question. We need to encourage and support classroom teachers in all their professional development. That includes all of learning and teaching and not just ICT. ICT is, however, a growing part of life in the 21st century. I would be intrigued to know whether those same teachers who “don’t do computers” also don’t buy from Amazon, book flights or theatre tickets and even use ebay. The evidence would suggest that they are compartmentalising ICT in the classroom from ICT elsewhere in their lives. We also need to challenge the assumption that’s OK to “not do computers”. I don’t think it is anymore and I think we need to challenge head teachers (my job) to take ICT in learning seriously. The deployment of Glow gives me an opportunity to do this. Let’s see how things go!