Oct 27 2008
Reality Check
Working in a largely admin job these days, I have been told that I can spend an hour and a half a week in schools to keep ‘in touch’ with schools and to try out different tools with children so that I am talking from a place of some credibilty. I found this very exciting and instantly got in touch with a few of my old cluster schools to organise it. I ended up heading along to the smallest school in my cluster which has a total of 23 children in the school and agreed to take all of them for an afternoon slot. Being excited at the moment by a tool called Pixton which makes it easy and fun to make 2D comics, I went along ready to use this with the kids. I have to admit that I did not put that much work into preparing as I thought the tool was pretty straightforward and that it would be great to get the kids to problem solve and figure things out on their own.
Of course, ICT often doesn’t work as planned. I was without a laptop and I couldn’t get the data projector to connect to one of the new computers in the classroom (where was the fn button!). Giving up on that, I gathered them all around one computer screen and logged into my account and took them for a brief tour. I hadn’t set up a structured activity at this time as I wanted them to explore first. Looking back, what I should have done was at least talk about the genre of comics and explore features of this kind of visual language. I should also have had a better idea of what I wanted them to have accomplished by the end of the session.
I then set them up in pairs to go and explore on their own. This is where things really started to fall over. I had to spread the kids around three rooms to get them all onto computers and hadn’t gone around and logged in to Pixton first. As kids are likely to do, they started to get a little noisy while waiting for me to log them in (I didn’t want to give them my login details – I should have set up one they could use without me logging them in). My stress levels started to go up a little. Next major problem was that Pixton wouldn’t let me log in to my one account from multiple computers! Obviously, I should have got to the school a little early and tested this! I could get kids on but as soon as I moved on and logged in a few more, Pixton would freeze on them and kick them off again. As I moved around the rooms I had kids coming at me from a number of angles asking me to come and help them. My stress levels rose considerably at this time as I hadn’t prepared ‘plan B’ (which every person using ICT knows is a sensible idea!).
Giving up on Pixton, I gathered them all together again and showed them Voki as at least something they could go on to and doesn’t need an account. I had no clear direction in doing this – I was simply in ’survival mode’ by this time. Again the kids spread out but still the problems continued. This time, the internet connection at the school wasn’t really fast enough for 10 computers at once to connect well to the internet so many kids had trouble getting their Vokis to load and work properly. Still, most got something going and then I asked them to pack up and sent them off home.
So what will I do next time? Well, I am not one to give up easily so I am going to give Pixton another go but this time, I am going to put a bit more thought into what the LEARNING is that I want rather than just playing with the tool (I know that seems so basic but even those who are doing this all the time need to be reminded sometimes!). I am going to have an offline and online component to the activity so that I reduce the pressure on their internet connection. I am going to go early and set up and check that everything works. I am going to have a ‘plan B’ this time that is not technology based. I am also going to set up more than one Pixton account so that kids can be working in a couple of different ones. I will let you know how it goes.
So what about your biggest ICT failure? Leave me comments letting me know what it was – I think we should always talk about what doesn’t work as well as what does. Teachers often have issues with ICT that then stops them from wanting to use it again. I think we need to let everyday classroom teachers know that everyone experiences failure but that doesn’t mean we don’t keep refining and trying again.
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Suzie you are so brave sharing this and I am share this only echoes the experiences of many of us (and on more than one occasion). Not sure what the answer is here but the ‘plan B’ scenario is generally helpful e.g. a bunch of printed out somethings/Tearaway mags in my case often, as back up when all else such as the power, fails. It’s worse too when it happens with adult learners, they are much less forgiving and understanding than the kids I find.
First of all you needed your own (trustworthy) laptop, aircard and data projector. As well as modeling at the start, these would come to the rescue when things started to fall apart! Given that you were in largely unfamiliar territory, I think your second problem was that the group of kids was too big – with a group of 8 the situations would have been manageable. Perhaps you were too focused on your ICT goals for the lesson and not enough on the learning involved? Not to worry though – we’ve all had disasters like yours and survived to try again another day.
I am sure we have all had experinces like this. I have found over the years that the teachers who are not confident with ICT can let these experiences put them off.
The failures that I have mainly come about when I try something at home on my lap top, then when I try it at school the Web 2 tool I’ve planned to use (i.e. story box, picture trail) won’t work because of a firewall or school zone.
ICT is great for problem solving!! My kids continue to amaze me. On Friday I was helping a year 6 boy put some music on his photostory 3 slideshow. We couldnt work it out, then he thought of using the microphone!! probally not the best way but it worked.
Hi Suzie,
Oh thank goodness this happens to seasoned professionals as well as new IT teachers like me. I’ll make you feel better by sharing one of my mistakes!
I just introduced my Grade 4 classes to voicethread and of course they were absolutely gagging to add their comments. I didn’t give enough direction about what I wanted them to comment on, or how to leave a good comment, because my (limited) instructions were not followed at all. I wanted them to reflect on their recent camp experiences, to share their highlights, and to share something they learned.
Basically what I got in return was a running commentary on how they got up early in time to catch the bus, the trip to the camp, what they ate for breakfast etc etc. Essentially, what they DID, not what they LEARNED. I will definitely make some changes for next time I use voicethread!
Meanwhile, I wrote a post on a little gmail hack that might help you with pixton (almost too embarrassed to share the address, as I’m just starting out, but here goes!) http://tipoftheiceberg.edublogs.org/2008/09/24/getting-around-the-email-problem/ It’s such a pain having to organise different log-ins for tools you want to use in the classroom.
Anyway, good luck for your next trip to the classroom!
I’d like to say a heartfelt thanks to Suzie and Keri_Lee. We’ve all made these mistakes I’m sure and occasionally, just occasionally, it is the technology that lets us down. More often though it’s the way we prepare, or fail to, that means events begin to take control of us and the lesson, rather than the other way around.
But as we’re all only too well aware, making mistakes is often the best way to learn, provided we’re able to reflect positively, then adapt accordingly. And so we move forward. Whoohoo!