At times during this course I have felt overwhelmed, as if I am not understanding fast enough. This blog is to remind us all of something I realised on Tuesday while watching my peers make their presentations on concept mapping.
I admire Primary school teachers. The things those teachers can do with Bristol board and markers are amazing! They have the neatest handwritings AND on a blackboard with NO LINES using chalk! Me? Thank God for computers. I digress, but think about it: all those charts "Miss" created that decorated our classroom walls, a visual depiction of some lesson or the other, isn't it similar to what we are learning using Webspiration?
As I looked at my peers present their work it hit me that this is similar to what I see on my son's classroom walls and what I remember on my own walls at primary school. Teachers used charts to depict certain lesson points. The difference now is that our students can play a greater role in the creation of these charts which were before all done by "Miss" for our benefit. With Webspiration and concept-mapping students can not only become more involved but "Miss" can enlist the help of other "Misses" by the touch of a button at any time convenient to us.
So be encouraged colleagues we have been that way before (did someone say prior knowledge?) but now our markers and Bristol board have been replaced by the mouse and screen. And as a teachers of mine would say: "You eh the most duncey one in the world, so yuh go get it."
Thanks Angela, I quite happy that you hold primary school teachers in such high esteem. I am sure my fellow primary school teachers would appreciate the sentiment. In reality primary school teachers have always had to do their best with what ever resource they placed their hands on, often time resorting to recycling materials and taking funds out of pocket, to ensure that our charges grasp what ever concept was being taught. Technology has brought the promise of ease, accessibility, and participative learning. I honestly look forward to the day in which we are afforded the same infrastructure as that of secondary schools, yet many of my colleagues have not allowed this disadvantage to hold them back form using technology that is available, and with courses such as the one in which we are currently perusing, we now know that "technology that can enhance our teaching is free" and like we have before , we will access the needed equipment to ensure that our primary school students can swim with the sharks in the "Technology Sea."
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