Discusiones en WWWEDU Parte de mi trabajo cada semana es realizar un "digest" de mensajes aparecidos en WWWEDU y DIGITALDIVIDE. Esta semana ha surgido un tema que creo es de su interés, pero la discusión se alarga hasta alcanzar los 100KB, así que aquí solamente pongo el inicio. Los interesados de recibirla toda me avisan. ok? El último comentario, el de Claude Almansi, me parece interesante porque las "risk-managing skills" de las que ella habla son algo que he visto que los maestros que enseñan con Logo manejan bastante bien, resulta que cuando se trabaja con Logo los proyectos/programas *siempre* tienen fallas/bugs. Es normal que las tengan. Es decir, siempre sh*t happens! Pero la postura de estos maestros es que los bugs son pistas, oportunidades, etc. En la vida real, los chicos ya no van a tener al maestro siempre al lado, ellos tendrán que ver cómo manejar los bugs que vayan cometiendo y con qué actitud. Daniel Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 16:46:02 -0000 From: "mlalexfrancis" To: [email protected] Subject: [WWWEDU] Encouraging Techno-phobic Teachers
How can we engage teachers in technology? Our local public school has several state-of-the-art computer labs that sit idle because teachers are afraid to take their class in case something goes "wrong." As a computer instructor, I have been a parent volunteer to assist my own child's teacher in the lab, but I know other teachers still avoid it. Somehow there is money for hardware and software but not for staff to help during classtime. How do we encourage all teachers to jump in?
MaryLou A. Francis
From: Nancy Willard
Provide them with 100% solutions -- lessons plans that provide all the necessary information to successfully implement and provide a mentor to assist.
One major problem in shifting from technology innovators to the technophobic is that technology innovators are risk takers who are comfortable in jumping into the unknown. The rest of the world does not think like this. They are risk managers or risk avoiders. The only way you will get them to change is to offer a situation where they do not have to deal with any risks.
From: "Claude Almansi"
Very true, but there is another factor explaining why teachers are not risk teacher: the technology innovator faced with a glitch in a research lab can go "LOL, sh*t happens" and start over again. The teacher faced with a glitch or something s/he doesn't understand or a student leading him/her up the garden path, with 25+ restless kids in the computer lab, justifiedly fears that "sh*t not only happens", but is likely to hit the fan in the next 5 minutes unless s/he finds a solution. This cramps his/her style, making him/her all the more unable to find such a solution. What they feer is not tech, but the ruckus a tech glitch can cause.
So yes, starting so-called technophobic teachers with risk-free material is a good idea. But what they need, soon after that, is the risk-managing skills.