You should have seen her face. I kid you not, it was the kid-at-Christmas face. Five educators on staff at Phoenix now have their own blogs. Up from one (this one) last year, we’re moving on up.
Today, after school, I went down to Mr. Francis’ room to try out the birthday present that’s been begging to be used since last week. It was to be a trial podcast recording where I interviewed Mr. Francis about his new world of technology.
What a beautiful surprise to walk through the door and catch him sitting aside Ms. Holliman leading her through the sign-up process for her own blog.
I sat down and watched and started recording (unfortunately the mic. was on mute, so the entire 19 minutes of brilliance were lost).
Then, she clicked “Publish Blog” and I wish I had my camera with me. Truly, it was an amazing face.
I’ve wanted this since last year’s NGT training and Alan November’s BLC06. The obvious possibilities for a school of our size and technological inventory to really empower our students with Web 2.0 are limitless. We just needed one person to get it started.
For the longest time, I thought it was Principal Cantees. I should have known better. Didn’t Doug Reeves teach me anything? It’s the job of a Jill (I think that’s me. It could be Jack) to start the change in a school.
One thing that came up in our never-to-be-heard podcast was the initial fear of the technology when Ms. Dunda and I integrated a blog into some Back-to-School training we did at the start of the year. Ms. Holliman admitted it was technology and “that meant it was going to be difficult to use.” This is from the same woman who told me today that she planned on posting once a day but probably more.
We then talked about the parallels for these educators in learning these new tools as our “striving learners” encounter new vocabulary or ways of thinking, they experience the same trepidation many educators feel when beginning to work with technology. Oddly, many educators turn away from the challenge with the excuse of “too much to do,” but accept no excuses from their students.
Miguel Guhlin posted today on administrative challenges and hypocrisy. I’m pretty sure many educators’ refusal to adapt to new technologies falls nicely into that category.
technorati tags:podcast, teaching, web2.0, guhlin, phoenix, blc06, blc07, ngt
Many great works of art/literature have been lost. Some were stolen. Some were distroyed during war. The Vandals that sacked Rome were merciless (except for The Pantheon, which they spared). Now the podcast!
Yes Zac, it’s you! I thought you knew. You knew that you do a great job at inpiring your students, but maybe you didn’t know that this ability translates to adults as well. I feel creative and smart.
Web 2.0 thought of the day:
Our Blogs are integrated with the school web site.
Jack
You know what’s weird? We (Zac, Jack, Edna, and soon many others at Phoenix)are communicating more/better through blogging than we have all year — even though it takes about 20 seconds for me to go to your room. And now we have “others” that are part of Phoenix — like Paul in New Zealand. Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth for this morning.
Jack