After an initial burst of success, I am this week dealing with the frustrations of dealing with ICT in schools and the contrary nature of students!
Last year, I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown by students to seize the opportunity to complete their work using blogs. Students rushed home, eagerly signed on to the class website and attached their blogs with glee! This year it is proving quite a different story. I don't know if they are suffering a little stage fright, thinking the world is checking their progress due to it being part of a research project, or maybe they already jaded, quietly scoffing at my twee efforts to engage them with ICT, or maybe they are just apathetic...or I am a little too anxious - admittedly last year I had no real time frame and expectations and we ambled happily through the process together. Will do my best to be patient and see what unfolds. Patience is not something that comes naturally to me.
My patience was again tested today when I thought I could tackle this issue by getting one of the classes into a computer room, giving them a little time and guidance to encourage them to sign up to the class website and get blogging, but alas I was thwarted by basically every blogging site known to man been blocked for students, and my tragic attempt to get around this by having a stab at using the school intranet blog tool, only to find that blogs written on the intranet would not be viewable unless you were logged onto the school intranet. AAAARRRGGHHH!!!!
Unfortunately student patience levels are even lower than mine and I can sense they are becoming a bit dubious of the advantages of blogging altogether.
Trying hard not to let panic show......
First blog for ages
7 months ago
Hello
ReplyDeleteBrian ncea forum here
Following your efforts with interest. The response actually does not seem that unusual according to some of the research I have read around this. It's very frustrating to think that an educator who is locking into Web 2.0 applications because this is where the students are supposedly at, cannot get the kind of response say that Bebo or Facebook elicits.
I sense your frustration but keep at it. Another way to approach this of course is as part of the debrief/evaluation at the end of the course. There is always a learning result even when things don't work out as you expect.
I have shared your email with the English staff here at my school where I teach English. I can't guarantee any responses but we'll see.
Thanks Brian. I have had a bit of a breakthough with them in the past week. As you say, there is still a lot to learn even if it it doesn't work out the way I hoped!
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