Comments on: Lessons in Responsibility from Spider-Man, Part 2

By: Gerald Aungst

Gerald Aungst — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:47:28 +0000

@Jeff – Welcome to gifted education: at once a joy and a challenge! There is no way we can fully appreciate the value of the tool until it has value for us personally. Once we “get it,” then we can teach with it.

@Pam – We can’t think of ourselves as “old”. As long as I’m alive, anyway, I’m going to continue to learn. Here’s another angle on it (which also has implications for the way we teach): if the new tool or technology has no impact on our own lives, if it is irrelevant to us, then we won’t put any effort into learning it. The challenge for teachers, and something that people outside the profession often don’t get, is when we must teach something that has had no impact on our own lives. We then have a choice: plod our way through, following someone else’s plan, or find (and if all else fails, create) a connection so that we can teach it well.

In my career I have fallen in love with topics and subjects I disliked in school, and most of the time it is because I’ve been required to teach it. There was no way I could get through a unit on a fake smile. I had to really care about it and find some way to really make it mine. Then the passion and joy of teaching can come through to my students.

By: Pam H.

Pam H. — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:17:05 +0000

Thanks for sharing this article. it does hit home. I plead guilty to wanting to use something that I am not very competent with using. The blackboard comparison holds true for other “gadgets” such as a calculator and the computer for word processing and email. I definitely agree that it is more difficult to learn all of the new technology. So much is coming so quickly!!
This is a thinking article. It is truly not just about the technology but the challenge to get us “old folks” rethinking teaching to reach today’s youth.

By: Lessons in Responsibility from Spider-Man, Part 3 | Quisitivity.org

Lessons in Responsibility from Spider-Man, Part 3 | Quisitivity.org — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:34:55 +0000

[...] the responsibilities that go along with using powerful technology tools, both for students and for teachers. Today I will consider a third group: [...]

By: Jeff Agamenoni

Jeff Agamenoni — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:03:56 +0000

I am just starting a new position this fall as a middle school gifted specialist and I have a ton of planning to do. Your thoughts in this post on how we need to use the tools ourselves before trying them in the classroom is very insightful. I am going to use Diigo this year with my students and I use it mainly for bookmarking purposes. However, there is much more to Diigo than simply bookmarking and I plan to utilize some of those other features with my students…so further investigation on my part is definitely in order before the school year starts…Great Post! It is cool to remember that at one point…Chalk boards were newfangled.

I am glad I found your blog…I will diigo it right now…and it made me realize how much work my own blog needs…

By: Gerald Aungst

Gerald Aungst — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:50:36 +0000

Thanks for your comment Ray. Firstly, I wasn’t suggesting that technology itself is a problem, more how teachers respond to it. There are certainly other issues affecting curriculum decisions and classroom management decisions that need to be addressed too. I have to disagree with you, though, about school being like an assembly line. Schools and teachers are working hard to develop curricula and methods that are centered on the needs of the children first, rather than plugging all kids into a one-size-fits-all program. Have we met that goal? Certainly not, but that does not mean there has been no progress at all.

I’m not sure I understand how you see compulsory education as causing our problems in education. What alternative do you propose? Only send students to school who wish to be there? How do you suggest society deal with other children who do not want to be in school? I do think there are some students for whom the traditional model of education doesn’t work, but I don’t think that means we must abandon education for them. I think it means we need to adapt the system to work better for them. I’d be interested in your thoughts, though, about how this could work differently.

By: Ray Cates

Ray Cates — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:04:41 +0000

The problem in most schools is not technology, but the fact of compulsary student education. Students are in school that don’t want to be there. The Ford assembly line has been set up in schools. Kids are not machines that parts can just be added to. The United States is all about freedom — let the school bells ring with only freedom.

By: Tami Thompson

Tami Thompson — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:05:39 +0000

I think that the most common reasons for teachers to give up on technology integration are those that you mentioned. I have seen teachers jump on the “blog bandwagon” without thinking through the purpose and expectations of using these tools, only to have problems & give up.
Teachers need the paradigm shift that it isn’t about the technology. It’s about the learning, and the technology is the vehicle for the learning. It takes time and effort to build deep understandings about technology tools and their potential. The effort is worthwhile, but cannot be skipped over lightly.