Comments on: ICT Coordinator – Techie In Disguise

By: stevenic

stevenic — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:18:54 +0000

From what has been written above, I know the feeling. Sometimes when I make a suggestion to a teacher about integration of ICT they reply “That’s ok for you,your the technology guru.” I’m a classroom teacher who has a little knowledge and a great interest in how to engage students, and not just with ICT, but it helps. I think that modeling effective practice can be the starting point, pick out a couple of fellow travellers and work alogside them and let them spread the word. Share, serve and do do techie fixes but keep plugging away at new or interest driven ideas. A colleague now is rarely without a digital camera for her yr 1-2 kids to record their learning, another is having a go at webquests and still another has discovered powerpoint games as a presentation tool. Small beginnings and on a limited tenure but a start.

By: The Thinking Stick » Transition Techies

The Thinking Stick » Transition Techies — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 01:54:42 +0000

[...] So that leads me to this. Without Graham commenting on my blog I never would have found his entry ICT Coordinator-Techie In Disguise which led me to Brian Grenier’s blog. I’ve visited Brian’s blog before, but I admit it’s been awhile since I’ve checked in to see what he’s up to and to this posting. Graham quoted this from Brian’s post, but I’m going to quote it again because I think there is a lot of use out there that feel this way. What’s been concerning me more though is how I can get teachers to understand exactly what my job is and get them to act upon some of my suggestions. Let me try to clarify the predicament I am speaking of. If I had to sum up my job in one sentence (which I do quite often), it would be this; I assist/train teachers with integrating technology into their curriculum with the ultimate goal of improving student achievement. That said, what I have come to notice is that teachers are calling upon me NOT to help them integrate technology, but rather to fix some technical problem (printers, network access, setting up computers, etc…) I’m not quite sure how to address this situation, being that I really don’t feel I am in a position to tell teachers what they should be doing in their classroom. I really don’t mind troubleshooting and solving problems for teachers, but I fear that by doing this too often I am neglecting to do what I really should, and want, to be doing. I’ve tried taking the opportunity in the past to talk to teachers about technology integration as I was in the process of fixing some technical problem, but it doesn’t seem to sink in. I usually get comments like “That’s a great idea” or “Hmmm, I never thought about doing it that way. I leave thinking that maybe this teacher will actually try implementing some of my ideas, ask me to work with them one on one to get a better grasp on strategies, or share the idea with some of their colleagues who would show some interest. I’m disappointed when the next time they approach me is not to talk about these ideas, but to fix some new technical problem. I’d really like to hear some comments about ways you would suggest, or have approached, such situations. [...]

By: Wati Wara

Wati Wara — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 08:36:12 +0000

The keywords problem is that is is too easy to ‘do for’ vs ‘do with’. If, when problems arise, the focus is on teaching people how to solve these problems themselves the issue that that Brian has diminishes. Why? – people become empowered to deal with things themselves and then can think about being a bit innovative and adopting some new ideas.