Wikis & Blogs Presentation I Have been Transported Back in Time
I am attending the Florida Council of independent School conference in Orlando. This is obviously not a dedicated Technology Conference, but there is a strand for “Technology Directors”.
Finally sitting in a room where I am able to hook onto the hotel’s wifi and able to live blog. I was not even getting signal to use my iPhone in the previous session. No Twittering… 
I am at a point that I expect these kinds of amenities.
I am in a session that is described as follows in the program
Wikis and blogs are the latest way to engage students. Learn the
difference and how to use them effectively in the classroom using real
time examples and best practices.
A sales person from from Apple is presenting “Blogs and Wikis” and is telling us
that Apple as a company that is doing well right now. They are putting their money in creating better products. Apple’s commitment to education. How do we provide the best accessibility to our students. Enhancements for sagety, durability and school use….
Now here we go, we are getting to the real thing now: The difference between blogs and wikis-
BLOG-
- blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order
- personal thoughts and weblinks
- online journal
- web-log
- blogging- activity… blogger- person who blogs
I think, I am going to stop right here! I think you probably catch my drift. I can’t believe, that the presenter is standing in front a a room of about 40 people giving this kind of explanation!! Did you know that wiki comes from the Hawaiian word “quick”?…. YHTBKM!!!
I feel that I have been transported about 2 years backwards. Are the administrators and Technology Directors that are in the room really at this level? I am here to find out great examples, trials and errors of teachers and schools who are implementing blogging and using wikis. I want to know of the difference these tools are making in student learning and achievement. How are we involving kids? How are we connecting them? Allowing them to be part of a larger world by communicating, reflecting, adding to a collective knowledge.
We are being shown examples of blogs and wikis.
Can you believe that Mrs. so and so has blogged today about a test review for her class. The teachers has pictures up and an audio podcast. There are no public comments from students. I am sorry if I sound sarcastic, but are we still using that kind of “blogging” as examples to administrators? What about the interactiveness? What about blogs that change the feeling of ownership that students
She is showing us the Wiki that uses the OS10 server. And we are shown how to add comments on the Wiki. I am confused now… Question if a teacher could edit the wiki from their home PC? She was not sure.
Wow, session is thankfully over.
I can’t believe what I heard today. I wonder if I am the only one who feels that way?
Unfortunately, what you’re experience is not unique when dealing with administrators and some tech directors. Earlier this year, I learned this the hard way when I was asked to give a presentation about blogs and wikis in the classroom to teachers and administrators. I made the assumption that everyone in attendance was capable of creating his or her own blogger account without assistance. That was a terrible assumption. Of the 45 minutes I had been allotted, 20 of them were used walking people through the registration process.
My experience with some system administrators is that they are so far removed from the classroom that they never consider the greater uses of web 2.0. Instead they are caught up in blocking access to social networking sites. This is not always true, but I’ve seen it enough to make it disconcerting.
Me tranquiliza que no son únicamente en Argentina muchas capacitaciones de esa forma. Generalmente más de lo mismo y lo que estamos necesitando, buscando es que compartan sus experiencias,proyectos realizados. Me pasó muchas veces dar mi tiempo libre para aprender y salir decepcionada. Esperemos que no todas las presentaciones sean asÃ… y nos queda por delante armar una red, una Wiki con ejemplos/proyectos realizables…
Oh Silvia,
this is such a timely post for me to read! We just had a visit from our apple rep trying to sell us (very, very expensive) new equipment since we are in the last year of a three year lease on our school computers. He tried to tell me that with new equipment we could be doing 21st century learning (implying, I felt, that we were not already where we should be, but knowing nothing about what we do). He invited me to an apple teacher training event in Tallahassee to learn about blogs and wikis. I thought it sounded a bit basic, so I asked about it on twitter where I was told that, indeed, it was very basic, like what you experienced at FCIS.
I did ask the apple rep about becoming a trainer for apple, something in which I would be interested. He said it is VERY difficult, you have to be really amazing. I felt really put-down that he would just assume that because our school has older equipment we could not be doing anything “cutting edge” or that I could not be someone on a level to be worthy of the information for how to apply to teach teachers for apple. sheesh! I know he is only trying to sell products, but why don’t you give someone the benefit of the doubt? He has me to thank for making the first sale, as I convinced our school to even consider going mac in the first place.
Anyway, it is interesting to read that this is what apple’s “AMAZING” teachers are sharing in their presentations. Think I’ll skip the drive to Tallahassee.
@Richard
It became over the course of this conference very clear to me that there is a HUGE divide between Network administrators and technology integrationists. It seems to be not only that administrators are removed from the classroom, but also in their personality that make them more “linear” and less “creative” (not in the writing code creativity sense). The divide is too big to gap, unless you find someone who will allow for the possibility of an open door. An open door to points to a path where both approaches have their place in one school.
@Heidi
Te podes quedar tranquila.
Argentina NO es el unico lugar donde las cosas no avanzan tan rapido como uno quiere. Tenemos que concentrarnos a seguir el camino de compartir y collaborar. Nos van a seguir de una o otra forma a su tiempo.
@Andrea
I am so sorry to hear about your experience with the Apple representative. Sales people have no real experience what and how a school works. Too bad that they put the sales before the pedagogy. They don’t seem to realize that “real” teachers would be their best sales team.