Deja Vu or What Goes Around Comes Around

Deja Vu or What Goes Around Comes Around

I have been thinking about this question of providing videos to help parents get into the use of technology for teaching and learning purposes.  The more I think about it, the more I wonder where to even start.  I think parents today are not much further ahead than the teachers I worked with a decade or more ago.  The technology has advanced for sure, but essentially, I think most people still only use their phones for  pictures and email and to search for information.  They have no idea of the world that exists out there for the use of technology to create or display or probe or research. When I first started to work with teachers, I remember so well having to teach them the parts of the computer and how to navigate Windows 95.  I found it incomprehensible that they needed that help and yet they were in a profession that was advocating for the use of the computer in the classroom.  I suppose for most people, what happens is a mystery and before they can start to use the technology appropriately, they need to take away the mystery.  I've had this conversation with a friend of mine who now that he is home has to work at getting into his computer at the office and I tried years ago to get him to buy the technology for a home office and set it up so that he could dial into his home office to access his files at work. He's no dummy either and yet he just didn't do it. So, there is a matter of inertia.  I have to figure out how to get the beyond the inertia and into the learning mode themselves.  There is also the question of being afraid to appear dumber than their kids.  Most parents know that their kids can do just about anything with the computer but they are not happy about having to ask them.  it needs to be suggested to them.  It came naturally to me and I suppose that is another reason why I have to figure out an appropriate approach.  Parents need to turn for help to their kids and  yet they want to show that they know a lot too.  Go figure!

An Interesting Development

An Interesting Development

As the Covid 19 Pandemic has progressed, there have been all kinds of articles in magazines and postings in the various Educational lists that I receive daily that have addressed the problems with the digital divide between schools and their expectation that technology of all kinds be used to bridge the gap between themselves, their teaching staff and their students.  Every day, there is something about this school district or that jurisdiction finding that it is one thing to assume that technology is the ticket to reaching students stuck in their homes.  It is quite another to conclude that not all students have the technology required or the parents who understand how to use it and what to do to make it possible for there to be meaningful learning for their children.  More than a little part of me had started to think about the skill set I bring to that problem and to realize that I could be of service to those schools, those teachers and those parents because that is what I did for all the years after I first started to use computers myself in my classroom.  However, I had thought that I was really to old to make the effort necessary to somehow put myself out there and see what might happen. But then, I got a surprise phone call from one of my favourite old colleagues who is now in charge of all the programs Niagara University operates in Ontario.  In our chat, we both realized that there might, indeed, be a way that my skillset could be put to work for the benefit of not just the students and their parents, but the university as whole. My friend believes that creating videos to help parents understand the world of technology and how to use it with their students would be very appreciative and achieve a greater profile for Niagara University in Ontario and in the community of Vaughan where it is located.  My friend has worked hard to forge business links with that community and its politicians, and he believes what we are thinking of doing could be of great benefit to continue those links and promote the business of Niagara University in Ontario. I agree.  I have always wanted to help spread the word about that University and after our conversation, I was reminded that the former V. P of the University on the American side always used to say how appreciative they were because I had pushed them to go online and become technology centred.  Now, I have an additional opportunity to continue down that path. All I think I have to do now is push our ideas forward and do my best to help make that happen.  I'd be more than a little bit pleased to have a part-time job of some sort, even if it paid me next to nothing. I like the thought of that and the challenge.  What happens now remains to be seen.