I am still trying to make sense of the experience of NECC last week. So many passionate people, so much positive energy. How do I bring that back to my school district? I feel as if the digital divide is not so much between the haves and have-nots, as it is between the do’s and do-nots. We have this enormous gulf between on the one hand, the digital natives and digital immigrants ‘gone native’ , and on the other hand the gatekeepers. We have within our school system hardware limitations that are very real, and cost a lot to overcome. Limitations on numbers of computers available (we’re nowhere near 1:1), limitations on bandwith (even though we keep increasing it, demand is always about 20% more than what’s available), and limitations of the perception by administrators (network and otherwise) that social networking is too risky to allow our students access. I know that some students would use it inappropriately – heck, some teachers do and are invited to resign or be fired, but is the misbehavior of a small percentage a good reason to prevent everybody from using the tools? By that definition, since a small percentage of people use their automobiles recklessly, we all should be back to walking or riding horseback. (Which may solve the fuel crisis while making grain and oats scarce – to every action there is a consequence).
How do I begin to try to bridge this gap? I feel as if I’m standing on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and I want to walk across to the other side, but that first step is one heck of a long way down.
I do see some hope – some of our newer building administrators are putting a premium on having their teachers use technology – they’ve put their money where their mouths are and prioritized their budgets to provided laptops and smart boards to all the teachers at one elementary school. With that kind of financial support from the building level admins, that puts lots of pressure on the sys admins and technology directors to loosen up and allow the teachers access to the tools they want to use. Problem is, they had the luxury of extra funds from a bond election to refurb their olderr building, other campuses do not have that kind of leeway in their annual operating budgets. So the change is starting little by little- it’s just frustrating to me because I want it NOW and getting things to change in a suburban school district is like trying to turn the Titanic with one small rudder.
