Monday, November 24, 2008

A short one tonight

I got offered a massive challenge today - to go and work with a group of openly resistant teachers who are unconfident when it comes to technology and ways it can be used to enhance our teaching. I've met resistance before from my own staff, but I've never worked with a group of people I don't have a connection with before, and my brain is ticking over trying to think of ways to approach what could be a quite...negative environment.

So, I turn to my online support network for advice. How do you approach situations like this? What has worked for you, and what do I need to avoid like the plague?

I'm considering using the 'Trevor' cartoon strip I posted about here as a stimulus as well as this video:


Any other suggestions?

4 comments:

Bob Bartley said...

I really like the Woodward video, that makes a lot sense to me and is not as confronting as some of the others I have seen. I guess the challenge is to get them taking the first step in a journey that will never end. I see myself on the jourrney and there is no time limit or one way to do it. As long as people can see why it is important but not do expect to do it all at once. Just setting small goals like encouraging kids to email questions and queries but set expectations about the when who and how etc. We are learners for life.

My problem is that it is so obvious that we need to be heading in this direction due to the world we live in and the children in our care that I don't understand when others can't see that and those visual stimulilike videos make a strong impact. You could also show some of types of things children do everyday outside of school, msn, video creation, animations, game making, myspace.

Demonstrate that this is normal for the kids we teach and it's not going away. If school is to prepare students for life we need to jump on the train.

I am not sure if this helps, would love to know how it goes and things that work or don't work.

Good luck!
Bob

Unknown said...

Hope I'm not too late to help. I find the Commoncraft show videos really helpful to explain the how's and why's. They're kinda daggy and very American but if you sell those things as good/daggy most people will get it. I just showed the blogs and wikis videos and got very positive responses from a range of teachers.

Nic Mobbs said...

Thank you both for your thoughts and input on this.

Bob, I know what you mean about it being so obvious that we need to head in this direction. I find it very frustrating that not everyone can see that, but this will be my chance to _maybe_ help some others see the light.

Heather, the commoncraft vids are daggy, but effective. I use them when I'm introducing podcasting with my students - amazing how much they get out of them despite the dag factor.

Anonymous said...

I get frustrated as well when teachers have trouble seeing how technology can fit into what they are already doing. I work with one teacher who said she would not read blogs because she does not care about what other people are doing in their classrooms!

My ed tech constantly reminds me that I have to show people how it can be beneficial to them as individual teachers. I guess my advice would be much like Bob Bartley already said. Start slow. Maybe prioritize what they need to know and start with that. I think I'd emphasize that they cannot expect to learn everything overnight. It takes time to learn how to manage a wiki or blog. It takes time and patience to learn different Web 2.0 tools. It is NOT necessary to learn all of them!