-> Some teachers even fear the technology while others realize it is
-> here to stay
Actually, some fear the technology AND realize that it is here to stay.
I don't think I mentioned much about this here in the EDUCATOR echo, but
this past week on Wed. June 12th I did a demonstation for the Math Dept
and also attended by the Asst. Principal and Principal (at least for a
short time).
Our math dept. has a computer on a cart which we acquired this fall. It
is a Power Mac 6100 with a DOS compatible card. We have a number of
plans, but I did want to get something started with it before the end of
this school year. I finally decided, based on input from my dept, and
gauging to see what caught their interest, to establish an Internet
account for our dept.
I did have to overcome admin objections, logistics problems, and learn
the Mac OS (I had planned originally to use the DOS side of the
computer, but had some difficulties with baud rate limitations, and so
abandoned that idea). All of this ended up delaying anything I could
show to the dept by about 1.5 months.
Anyhoooo....this past week I presented a little show for the dept.
demonstrating e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, and the Web. Two of our most
computer phobic teachers have approached me about teaching them
individually at some point this summer how to use the machine to access
these resources, so I considered that a minor victory.
One of the teachers, a generation older than I, had purchased a computer
quite a number of years back. She really only uses it for small
word-processing tasks and for doing her grades. She was telling me how
afraid of the machine she was at first, and how her heart used to beat
faster when she went near it. I think she was embarrassed to admit this.
She said that her husband had to write down directions for her about
exactly what buttons to push and what key sequences to use just to turn
on the machine and get to her gradebook program.
Now, this teacher IS afraid of the darn things, but recognizes there is
value to them and that they are here to stay and that she needs to do
something about it. What she needs is support, time and training. The
system doesn't make it real easy for teachers to get this kind of help.
Especially teachers who are more afraid of the machines.
Sheila
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