I should be offended...

Yesterday I confused my husband (also a teacher) and abandoned my laptop on my desk and went about other teacher type business. He couldn't find me and asked my staffroom buddy where she thought I might be - her reply, "Oh dear, she's cut the umbilical cord..."

I should be offended by that, but strangely I'm not. I have no issue being overly attached to my laptop and through it the internet and my many social networks - school, private, local, national or even international. My only issue is that sometimes I just don't get a chance to multitask as much as I'd like - this is why I need an iphone...

My growing dependence on my laptop is reflected in my students' reliance on their web enabled hiptops/phones. As a teacher I see massive potential in tapping into this connectivity for their education, but find myself regularly torn over the matter.

- I am restricted by policy and this is incredibly frustrating when it stops me meeting the outcomes the same policy makers have set as my target.
- The internet - chatrooms, BB, etc - is the place I "zone out", it's recreational. Sometimes I resent that it's more and more a place of 'work' for me and I wonder if it's same for our students.

I was talking with a colleague today about this as she'd been asking her grand daughter why the students haven't always been as receptive to online things as teachers expected. My theory - we're not finding the right sort of ways to connect them in, they're feeling the same issues of under valued opinions and devalued knowledge is carrying over onto "their turf". I can see their point to a degree...Especially when teachers aren't changing pedagogy to match the new media...

Does anyone else ever find students resist (particular 15-18 year olds) connecting to their teachers online? Why do you think this is?

Tags: connecting, engaging, resistance, work versus play

0 members like this

Next Post >

Comment by Gwyneth on September 13, 2008 at 2:07am: First, laptop dependency is a wonderful thing. My students expect me to announce my engagement to mine any day now, and are always asking about the progress of my hot electronic affair - possibly also lesbian, since laptops, like cars, are female.

Also, yes, I do find some students resistant to connecting online. I think part of it is that they haven't had the time/experience to develop different online personas for different online activities. I keep my RL online stuff rigourously separate from my professional life online, just because there are things about me that my students don't need to know. Neither does my grandmother. This compartmentalisation is second nature to me now - pseudonyms and unrelated usernames and all that. But I think students really struggle with that concept, no matter how I try to explain that I don't want to know about all the other things they do unless they want me to. It's their job to set up their life to allow the sort of access they want from different people.

What has your experience been?

Comment by Mobbsey on September 13, 2008 at 3:15am: :D Mine would expect me to announce any such thing via a network wide email or Blackboard announcement.

I keep a distinct separation between personal and professional too. I think it's an important mode of operating online for teacher to model to students for a number of reasons:

- Blurring the line between "teacher" and friend can be icky professionally, enough said

- There is an increasing awareness amongst employers and clients of the internet as a way of "checking you out". Great example of professional and personal mixing with bad results was seen in the Aussie media earlier this year when some of our Olympic swim team put some rather...raunchy photos up on their facebook accounts and through their social networks they hit the media. Led to a big discussion in the media about their positions as role models etc. I've also heard of some employers searching to see if their employees represent themselves online in a way which reflects the image of the company - and there are consequences if you're not meeting the standard.'

I once read a great blog about teaching kids about ethical and appropriate behaviour online (my apologies I can't remember WHERE) and they said that they put in place the following check question for their class - "If I became president could the media use this against me?"

It's probably taken all year to set up my "teacher" persona online to a point where students will interact happily, and it's still not all of them. And now I'm finding myself establishing a distinct "professional" presence online too. These are both in addition to my personal and gaming presence...

It has to make you wonder - is anything online really authentic?