Mr. Bass

I’m not new to the world on online networks and I know that many people have their own agenda when they are posting things. However, when I’ve come to rely on my PLN and, for the most part, trust them. Today I feel as though I have been deceived. I don’t think those involved were being malicious, but at the same time, they certainly weren’t forthcoming. I’m going to be as general as possible because I don’t know the intentions, but I certainly was disappointed and will remember this in the future.

I’ve been on Twitter for a few months now and have been fairly active in terms of my posts and trying to follow and actually keep up with everyone. I must say that I’m an addict now and have gotten so much out of it that, after struggling with the purpose that Tweets have in my life, I don’t see leaving. I came across a little advice that I thought would be worthwhile in my practice, however, upon further scrutiny, I found that the person from whom I’d gotten the advice had a great deal to gain from it. The advice was completely self-serving, which is fine, but I would have liked to know that up front. PLN’s are a great way to find resources and, to a certain extent, market yourself. I guess I was just disappointed. Does this fall under the realm of cyberethics? I’m not sure, but it did leave an impression on me, one I won’t soon forget.

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I’m just finishing watching “Growing Up Online”, the PBS series from January 2008. Wes Fryer had posted a link on his blog pointing to Ben Chun’s blog where these are posted as chapters in Flash Video (.flv) format. If you’re interested in viewing these files, you can download them and use VLC Media Player to view them.

I don’t pass this along to scare, rather, inform.

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On Tuesday night I received a phone call from a friend’s father asking if I could come over and take a look at his computer; it wasn’t booting up right and he didn’t know what to do at this point. He’s a very nice man and has asked me for help on occasion because he’s unsure when it comes to working with his computer. Here’s the thing, he really wants to know and understand what happened, explaining all the possibilities are mind boggling and becomes a little overwhelming for him. Turns out he got a virus from somewhere, somehow. It’s not terribly malicious, but it’s certainly not going away without some major time. The good news, he has everything backed up and, after hearing a variety of solutions, has decided that he just wants a clean start so we’ll be reinstalling Windows this weekend.

Here’s the point of all of this, he was going to take his computer in to a service shop but he doesn’t trust them. He doesn’t mind paying for the service (I, however, won’t charge him for my help) but he’s heard about shops taking information off of computers and charging exorbitant amounts for a simple fix. I feel for him and the thousands of people who take their computers into the big box stores because something doesn’t work right. They need their computer to work and, if they don’t know what’s wrong, can fall victim to this kind of extortion or, in some cases, down right laziness on the part of the tech who simply wipes their hard drive. Yes there’s a business there, but at the same time. $50 to install a stick of RAM is out of line.

The average person doesn’t necessarily need to know about how to troubleshoot a problem, but I do think that a basic knowledge is important in our technological age. I think this is especially true of teachers who need their computers in their classrooms. In my previous district it would take approximately 5-8 days for the tech to get there to fix a problem. How can that teacher be expected to use technology on a regular basis? The answer, of course, is that they can’t.

Do we need to help teachers learn how to troubleshoot? To a certain extent, I think we do. I’d love to teach myself out of a job, but I don’t see that as a reality any time soon.

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Today I worked with a middle school teacher who was “referred” to me to help her integrate a SmartBoard into her classroom.  She was new to the technology and was interested in learning, but had some considerable reservations about where to start and how to go about using the technology effectively.  We spent about 45 minutes talking through the software and brainstorming ideas for her lessons and when I left she had high hopes for using the technology with her classes.

While 45 minutes is not a long time to really exact change on a teaching strategy, it did get her thinking about the next steps.  She had no idea how to use the software though.  I didn’t even know that she had recently gotten a SmartBoard for her classroom otherwise I would have reached out to her and scheduled a time to help her understand the possibilities that exist there.   While I don’t believe that this is a unique position for a teacher to be in, it concerns me because in this instance, she just didn’t know the tools or understand the possibilities.  Sure we provide trainings, but I can only be so many places at once.  I guess it makes me wonder how many teachers are falling through the cracks when it comes to the supporting and meeting their needs when new equipment is brought forth.  For how many teachers is it simply that they don’t know the possibilities and don’t know what questions to ask?  As a Technology Integration Specialist, how can I find and reach out to those teachers who want to work towards integration, but don’t know where to start?  Yes, there are many answers, but for me, every answer just brings up more questions.

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