I didn’t quite know what to expect when I began this course.
I have aspirations of teaching, but other than a few classes at the power
plant, I have very little experience with developing material and then
presenting it. This is, of course, precisely why I decided to pursue this
degree. I don’t want to be an educator in the traditional sense of the word, I
want to be a teacher.
What
impressed me most during the semester was the wide range of the topics covered.
From the one stop shop nature of Google+ to the concept of RSS feeds, I was
impressed that I was actually introduced to new tools for use in the training
environment. It is the technician’s hubris to think that he has been exposed to
everything on the Internet that’s worth knowing. I’m thankful that I’ve had my
eyes opened early.
The
other item that impressed me is that how quickly the sands are shifting in this
field. Frankly, I was worried when I chose to pursue this career path that all
the good positions would be filled. Obviously I don’t want to leave the Golden
Gooses that is the Millstone Power Station, (I have my pension to consider) but
in a field that is constantly changing, there will always be opportunities for
those that are at the top of the wave. Since education is by and large publicly
funded and the use of technology is growing exponentially in the classroom, I’m
sure there will be a position available when I shuffle off the nuclear coil.
There
are two things I discovered during this class. The first is how difficult the
job of a teacher is. I had forgotten, while pursuing my IT degree, that there
are not a lot of people out there like myself. Teachers are being swamped daily
with a plethora of technology riches by well-intentioned people who expect them
to pick up the tablet and just incorporate it into their classroom. I get the
feeling that there are school systems out there who are thinking, “I’ve given
you this gift, why aren’t you using it?” This has to make for an incredibly
stressful environment. After all, people don’t invest millions of dollars on
gizmos just to have them sit in the closet. Teachers need training. I applaud
the efforts of my classmates to pursue this on their own, but if knowing how to
use a tablet in the classroom is a work requirement, then that requirement
should be fulfilled on work’s time and not the teacher’s free time.
The
second thing I discovered is how well suited I am to be one of these trainers.
I was speaking to someone on the cruise I took about the lack of training for
teachers. He just happened to be a local school board member of his town. I
related how I thought that I would be perfect to perform a job like this
because I’m knowledgeable, I can teach, but most important because I’m bald and
old. I would be the least threatening tech person they had ever seen. I would
be their age, their peer. His response was incredibly positive, not about me
being knowledgeable or an able teacher, but because I was old.
The one
issue about which I would warn my classmates, would be the tendency to become
complacent when the school system buys software to teach their children. Again,
this is a case of the generals making decisions about what the boots on the
ground need to do their job. I would urge my classmates to venture outside the
borders of what this program has to offer. There are a great many freeware
courses on-line and I would say to them that what they are learning is only the
beginning. If they enjoy what they’re learning here, they will have an absolute
ball in a javascript class. The key point is to be creative. I’ve no doubt that
teachers are some of the most caring and creative people in the world, and it
would be a shame to sacrifice that on the altar of technology.
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