this thing about technology...

Why am I constantly surprised about how many educators are NOT incorporating technology into teaching and educating? I just finished attending a three day conference in Denver as part of a national grant our community college. These are peer learning meetings where we share information with ten other colleges about what we are doing. I had suggested that instead of waiting for a twice a year meeting we might be able to use a wiki to share information. Nobody seemed to know what I was talking about. I was flabbergasted. Other college professionals wanted to get copies of my contextualized curriculum and powerpoints. Instead of emailing, I could easily post this information on a wiki. And vice versa. I could get up to date information from other colleagues instead of waiting six months.

Then the conference organizers struggled to use their powerpoint presentation. Well, I know that we all have trouble with equipment. At one time or another, we've all had this problem. And it is frustrating. But these are professionals (I thought). They need to have a back up plan when you are presenting at a national conference. Somehow we all got distracted and I couldn't tell you what her talk was all about.

I'm pushing forth a new plan of action for our new grant. Our community college will be targeting out of school youth (ages 16-20) to try to get them back in school (through Adult High School or GED) and then seamlessly transition them into community college. We need to show them the possibilities and benefits of post-secondary education. My strategy is to share information with the other colleges in the grant. I will personally set up a collaborative wiki and invite my North Carolina community colleagues to join me. We need to be proactive in collaboration instead of waiting around to see what others are doing. There is definitely a benefit when I can bounce off ideas on this wiki.

Stay tuned for Chapter Two of my "Wiki Goes National". I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop when some administrator who doesn't even know what a wiki is tells me that we can't do this free sharing of information because it is not "official".