I'm Tired. I'm Frustrated. I'm Angry.

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last. Or maybe I can. I'm tired. I'm frustrated. And I'm angry. I'm tired of not having reliable access to the internet at school. I have been keeping a diary for the last year of all the network errors I encounter during the course of the day, and there are so many! This is just when I actually want to use it (of course, typically when a lesson revolved around something required on the internet); who knows how much more often it actually is! I'm frustrated. I've skipped out on ICT committee meetings since this time last year, when I realised that I am the only department person who shows up regularly, and that the meetings accomplish nothing for students/staff. I attended the most recent, briefly, which mostly discussed how we're going to keep the kids from using the new high-speed broadband network. I understand that while much of this is the laziness factor on the part of certain people, a part of it is also financial, and that's frustrating too. I'm angry. Our department had a vacancy last year, and it was advertised as "leading the school in technology integration." Well, thanks for the kind words! However, the person hired was NOT impressed when they arrived (from overseas). They feel a bit hustled. I'm not surprised. I'm angry my students can neither download or upload files for their work, and cannot view youtube at all! Needless to say, this put the breaks on our film wiki project. I ripped my DVD and dumped it into the student data file instead, but what a pain! This is after we were all told off for having too much stuff in our department folders that the server couldn't handle. Well, what do they expect when students have no access? If the kids had access to youtube, they could watch the bit of the film they are analysing without taking up server space. I'm angry the network went down three days in a row during report writing week, for hours at a time (as it does EVERY reporting period). I mean, seriously. If the network can't handle the traffic when it needs to, shouldn't it be UPGRADED? Nothing like last minute pressure to meet report deadlines (NOT EXTENDED [understandably]) during exams, marking, and managing groups of boys who have sat their exams and are ready for the holidays but there's still two weeks to go! If you think I'm angry, spare a thought for those poor staff members who took time away from their own families to work on reports from home using our remote server, which promptly went down and deleted all their work. I'm angry, no, I'm still really, really PEEVED OFF at last year's frustrating episode that some of you will remember. But I feel I have no recourse whatsoever. I'm still so angry about this that I am retraining myself with the ICT curriculum (that's my PD for this year) and considering a change. A major change. This year I've had so little access that the time it takes to set up blogs, wikis, and keeping all of it updated all the time just doesn't seem worth it. And that's sad. What's also sad is how little I feel this year. I no longer go in early, and I leave every day by 4pm. It means I'm super busy when I'm there, but I'm simply not prepared to continue to give and give and give of my home time when nothing changes on the other end. I'm not attending any conferences this year, which makes me sad, but I cannot justify the expense from my household budget when there's no implementation afterwards. Guess what else is sad? I find I'm understanding more and more why other staff simply can't be bothered to get wired. It does take a lot of your time. It does require ongoing upskilling. But...they will not actually be using it in the foreseeable future. Heck, my room doesn't even really have heat, doesn't have any a/c, and definitely doesn't have any computers. I'm tired of fighting for access. I'm frustrated that people still see students using computers as "playing," and I'm angry that I'm not able to prepare my students for their futures. But heck, they can use a pen and paper like nobody's business!

Wiki Ed

so...how's it going? every year i forget that term 3 is just as, if not more, full on than terms 1 & 2! this term i have a student teacher (that's a good thing, lol), am making films with the year 9s, and am participating in the WikiEd project.

WikiEd

Wiki Ed offers Learning4Content: free workshops for teachers to learn how to use wikis. workshops are 2 weeks and take you gently (very gently!) step-by-step through the process of creating and editing in wikis. There are participants from around the world, and since WikiEd is a NZ-based project, there are plenty of kiwis too! It has been an invaluable experience, and I especially appreciate all the new contacts I have made to my PLN. I highly recommend you particiate in the project; the next workshop begins on 24 August 2009.

You can view my work-in-progress here.

(as you can see, i'm having an identity crisis w/capitals. i always type on the net in lower case, but on wiki ed i use a more professional register. does using lower case date me? is it a bad habit from 10 years ago? should i stop it? post your opinion in the comments section!)

Blogs and Wikis, an update

so...as i mentioned earlier this year, i am using blogs and wikis with my year 9 accelerates.  i feel a little like i'm floating through dark space without a connection to a mother ship, but i'm trying.  one never gets anywhere without trying (and failing), right?  that's what i'm telling myself, anyhow.  

my biggest concern is that i don't know exactly how my students should be blogging (is there a "should"?).  we have used our blogs for posting poetry and responding to questions from Knowledge4Africa, a site that offers English activities, among which were several poetic options.  (note:  K4A didn't have the actual poems, so i projected the poem from my laptop onto the board while the students answered the questions).  we have posted book reviews as well, and i also used a film study round-off activity on their blogs.  

most recently, however (and most exciting), we have recorded videos of them reflecting on their experiences at high school and in English for the first half of the year.  many of them come from a school with a school-television station, so they are pretty savvy about how they will edit their 1 minute videos.  i am looking forward to sharing some with you early next term.  i am NOT looking forward to the editing/posting of the videos, which thus far in my experience has been a painful and ultimately unfruitful pain in the arse. however, by putting this task in the hands of my students rather than my own, i hope to see successful video uploading. you can peek at our homepage here.

we have also used a wiki this past term for collaborative learning of our film study.  firstly, students were allowed to vote which film they wanted to study.  as long as it had a suitable rating (and it wouldn't make me feel like i was having my teeth drilled to watch it over and over again), i was willing to use it.  they chose Hot Fuzz, and since i adore simon pegg, that wasn't a problem.  

the wiki is only in "draft" form at the moment - i plan to use this holiday time to review their pages, and we will formalise it together during our revision during term 4.  i am wondering how much "amending" i should contribute to the wiki.  if you have used wikis, i would love to have your input on how much contribution you make as facilitator. right now everything you see is student created.

i can't really tell you right now if this experiement has been "successful", especially as i'm not sure what comprises being successful at this point.  what i can tell you is that i have been excited to see a large (30) group of students focused on their work and working collaboratively to direct their learning.  it has been exciting watching them want to do, and doing, more than what is asked, as they come pre-skilled.  and it has been exciting watching them be thrilled with coming to English (something i don't get from my seniors).

i have been fortunate.  this class is timetabled when the best lab at school is avialable, so i haven't had the frustration of dealing with unavailable lab time, difficult to manage mobile laptops, or downright frustrating library computers.  and i am grateful.  

i am aso fortunate enough to have toni twiss, technological mothership, coming to assist my department next term.  i can't wait, and i'm sure my students will be most fortunate to have the benefit of the time spent with her.

now i must stop procrastinating and get back to my NZATE 2009 conference presentation!  have a happy winter holiday.