Why are we doing this?

Today I had an interesting conversation today about using technology in the classroom and in the school and in the school division. Now, I’m very interested in moving the use of technology along beyond just a minor few looking at some technology use in classrooms. I would like to have it front and center in our division where we are looking at how to build the skills of the teachers and create learning opportunities for teachers and students. Right now, it is no more than a glorified email system. There are some creative and wonderful things happening but they are few and far between. In far too many schools, there is little more being done than keyboarding, fancy powerpoint and the occasional video being made. Most people have not heard of delicious, furl, suprglu or any of the other social software that can be used to manage your life. They don’t have a clue about any of the online software that is now available or what it can do.

So, as we are talking, we are discussing what our system will, in the near future with the proper time, be able to do and I began to realize that we’re reinventing the wheel. The system is looking at creating internal conferencing, internal calendar scheduling, internal wikis, internal blogs, internal ….. You get the picture. I started to explain that we don’t need to wait. We can do that all right now and I started showing the tools that I use and the places I go to use the tools. I began to show him how I’m involved with the Horizon Project and that, with these tools that are Open Source, we can do so many things.

While I’m showing this, a funny thing happened. He seemed to realize that I’m not real excited about the inhouse things but, instead, want to continue with the OS. He wasn’t excited to see that, as a teacher, I’m using all types of tools and technologies. Instead, he continued to explain how we could do all of this within our own system so that, ultimatley, he could tell what was going on with every machine in the division. Ah - there it was - control.

I’m slightly disappointed. I thought that, as a division, we were going to be one of the few that didn’t get caught up in who controls what but instead use the tools to help the students understand and create in new and exciting ways. Instead, as we talked, I realized that what they wanted was a system that systematically monitored what all computers were doing and, when a device that wasn’t from the division was attached, it would be shut down. Thus, the use of my MacBook are numbered which is too bad because I can do so much more with it than any of the laptops that are provided from the division.

Control. Of resources. Of time. Of energy. Of people. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that so many of us are supposedly working towards the goal of doing what is best for children. I don’t know but as I watch what is happening and will be happening with the use of technology in our division, I’m seeing that we will be going backwards not forwards. We won’t be allowing students to make those all important mistakes from which they will learn a great many things. Instead, we’ll keep them walled up inside, hoping the “bloggyman” won’t get them but keeping them from learning a vast number or skills necessary for their success in the 21st century. Maybe that’s why I’m an administrator. To venture into the foray with the knowledge and skills that I have garnered over the past few months as a demonstration that not all is bad, the “bloggyman” is only there if you DON’T let the kids out and interaction with unique and real audiences is so much better than with me since, really, I’m older and, well, not really a great person with which to “dialogue” or chat. (My oldest daughter advised me of this the other day as she blocked me out of her IM. I’m still recovering from it )

Why are we doing this? Why indeed. With all sorts of people working at controlling what happens or what we see or what we hear, I wonder. Nothing more. You were expecting something deep? Really! Friday afternoon? Well, okay, I wonder how we are going to break free from the walls that are being constructed in various school districts and divisions and the IT departments try to “get a handle” on what they have and track what is going on and control who is in the system. I’m surprised that some of these IT departments don’t issue rayban sunglasses upon being hired.

My role? To continue to demonstrate that we can do all of this and more outside the walls with an authentic audience. We can build relationships and develop understandings that go beyond what we have within the garden. The world is a vast place. Shutting it off only delays the inevitable, it doesn’t stop it. So, as an administrator, I’ll continue to advocate for greater transparency in how decisions are made so that people who are making the decisions can be informed about what they are deciding and how it affects the students. Maybe if we let the students decide what they needed access to instead of the IT departments, we’d be farther ahead. After all, it is with them whom we are trying to make connections, not the IT department. They’re there to make it happen. To bad it seems to be backwards right now.