downtherabbithole

Well, this was an interesting (is this a synonym for frustrating or annoying in this case?) day as far as getting students to blog at school. It wasn’t my class, so it was probably less frustrating for me than the teacher who was trying to get the whole thing running. I got a call for help and came in to find a teacher who was unable to get her kids blogs started because the server at school had blocked them. I later found out that they were filed under ‘private web pages’ for the security on the server and this was stopping access. We tried several ways around it to no avail and then had another teacher come in to use the lab so we had to move. To the teacher’s credit, she took it with equanamity and we calmly moved on. We had our e-learning co-ordinatory investigate and fix the problem, but he was actually teaching a class at the time so by the time it was fixed the class had finished.

Well, in the end we got kids started with their blogs, and of course we all know with any lesson involving technology you never know where it can go, but this was a practice SAC and the stakes were reasonably high at this point. It highlights the need to try things out well in advance, which in this case the teacher was unable to do because of limited access and time. I still believe that we have to try to work around these things and I hope that the teachers that I’m asking to do this as well don’t curse me for this!

It is vital that we encourage our kids to use technology for learning. The world that they inherit will need them to have some familiarity with this, it also encourages ( which is more to the point) problem solving skills, interpersonal skills, design skills, written communication skills, and I might add patience (!)

Thanks so much to all of you teachers who are doing this, you know who you are. I really appreciate your passion and enthusiasm and (the watchword of the day) patience. The kids will thank you for it even if you do get grey hair!