Response Question : If you were to run into the Ed Norman Syndrome where you work, what would the issues be? What would Ed Norman be doing to try and preserve and protect the infrastructure? As an educational leader how would you resolve the situation?
I believe the Ed Norman Syndrome exists everywhere to some extent. There will always be monitoring and blocking to some extent for safety reasons (security of confidential files/viruses/etc). I feel the biggest issue for teachers would be the unavailability of certain sites that are valuable learning tools when used the right way. For example, at my site, YouTube is blocked (and it probably is a good thing students cannot access it) however there are some really good (standards based of course) video clips I would like to use during various lessons and I am not able to access it at work. We are also prevented from doing an "image search" on any search engine. Most of the teachers work around it by downloading videos from YouTube or adding images to PowerPoint's to show later. I feel Ed Norman would most likely prevent (inadvertently of course) the use of any sort of technology for learning by blocking so many of the Internet resources that teachers would give up and avoid it all together. I feel he would prevent the downloading of media players so that even those who tried to get around it would be unsuccessful. Even though his efforts are made to preserve and protect the technology infrastructure, it would be essentially destroying it for use by those who it was meant to be used by (teachers and students). The educational leader has a conflict of interests in this situation in that Ed is simply trying to protect the technology from hackers and viruses and the like while the teachers and students are trying to teach and learn using technology. I do not feel there is a solution that would make both sides happy in this all to common situation but a compromise could be made. By allowing teachers input on what should be allowed and what shouldn't while explaining to Ed his job is more than just "protecting" the infrastructure - it involves protecting it while still allowing access by those who need it. The key in this situation in my opinion would be clarifying what Ed's job should be and opening a dialogue with teachers so they can express what tools they need to be successful then taking that information to Ed and then following through and making sure it (the compromise) happens.
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Good job. You came up with a solution, I just discussed the problem. I think compromise is the only solution. Maybe we could find a way to make the time between when a teacher finds a good site and the time it take the district to clear it faster, like one or two days. I'm not even sure what the turn around time is because I never tried maybe I'll ask tomorrow when I get back to school.
ReplyDeleteThe restrictions on youtube is the most painful at my site. There are so many great uses for this, and creating a password-based access for teachers so relatively simple, that this paranoia simply restricts access to learning. At first, our district's justification was that we had access to United Streaming, but since this was cut out of our budgets, now we have no video access. Stupid and shortsighted.
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ReplyDeleteAngela. Great points and excellent solutions. YouTube is an interesting beast. I have learned how to use most of my new software with tutorials on YouTube. The irony, we do block it in my district, but that is because of the way YouTube advertises other videos around the video you are watching. Often times I have had inappropriate titles or content advertising as I was watching a completely innocent video. Unfortunately, this is enough of a reason to block YouTube. I am sure you have heard of TeacherTube as an alternative. Bill K
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment and your suggestion on making a manual for the teachers. I have tried to show the teachers how to fix simple problems, but they say they are too busy or they tell me that this is what I am paid to do and not them. I explain that it might make their day easier if they were able to fix the common problems they have. If I make a manual then maybe they will use it. I will try it.
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