Educational Discourse

They did it. They didn’t shrink from the pressure. They didn’t stop even against a team ranked much higher. MY ISLANDERS ARE PLAYOFF BOUND!  :-)

It was oh so sweet. An overtime shootout. Two backup goalies. All the intensity of a playoff game. I listened, glued to my computer, as the ……

Yes, I listened. You see, my wife and I decided the year that our oldest daughter was 2, to get rid of television. That was 13 years ago. We haven’t had broadcast tv in our house since then, well, except for 1 month a few years ago and we remembered why we got rid of it. Now, we have a tv and watch movies but we, as parents, have a much better handle on what our children watch than with broadcast television.

To say I don’t miss it would be a lie, especially with the playoff race being so tight these past few days. But I’ve learned to enjoy the radio and streaming audio over my computer. In fact, I find that I’m not interested in much tv any more. I like the way I can listen to things and still do something else.

Surprisingly, many people who find out we don’t have channels are amazed that we have survived. Once we explain how we find tv to be too much of a time waster and an argument starter, people kind of see it but “I just couldn’t do it.” is their usual response. Or my husband couldn’t do it.  Some people have even suggested that it will hurt our children socially since they won’t be able to talk about the tv shows. Well, my kids are up on all the movies and, because they read a lot, they know most of the stories that are the shows or movies are based upon. With the burst of technology in the past 4 or 5 years, my children have become very tech savvy and have no trouble keeping up with what is going on in the world. In fact, because we read the paper regularly together, we’ve had some great discussions about politics, culture, world problems and the funnies and they are not afraid to ask about certain things which usually leads us
to the computer for more information. It’s not unusual to see them reading the paper sometime each day, with each one having a section they like to go through. Myself, I really like the crossword and criptoquip while my wife does the math problem thing. (That is how much I like math!!)
With 4 computers in the house, 3 wired to the internet, information is there any time someone wants it. Now, I’m reading a few different news pages but don’t have a favourite. I do like the fact that I can get the NY Times, LA Times and other newspapers online to browse their contents.

So today, as I listened to the game, I was online reading through various blogs and doing some other work – well, actually not, since we are on holiday – I was goofing off but was telling everyone that I was working. Couldn’t do that with tv now could you! I’ve found that, with listening, I am much more in tune with what is happening than if I watch. I actually find watching sports on tv to be – dare I say it – boring! So there I was, rooting for my team – they’ve been my team since their first season. I’ve stayed with them through great times – 4 straight cups – and horrible times (but no where as bad as those Leafs!)

So when people ask me where I find the time to do my work with technology or do work with some of my stuff online, I just explain that I don’t have a tv and have all sorts of time to do that stuff. My kids also have more time although they do watch movies on the weekend. The rest of the time, they are reading, playing or doing something on a computer. Now, our main computer is in the kitchen so it is easy to monitor what is going on. My oldest daughter has a laptop which has wireless but she does not have chat. She writes (books), maintains a blog, has a few other core sites she visits and friends she emails. Our other computer is a games computer and used for wordprocessing. There is then my laptop which is wireless and off limits. As I’ve been reading about the slow adoption process in education and the many frustrations with people not grasping the opportunities that the web2.0 tools offer, I wonder if part of the problem is that many people, teachers included, don’t use the basic skills enough because they are still watching tv. What if each main tv in the house was replaced with a computer? Would this have any effect? For me and my family, it is the information center in our house and, therefore, everyone uses it and feels, to some degree, comfortable with using it.  What if we were to extend this even further and, in schools, just get rid of the textbooks and ban photocopying? I’d sure like to give it a try!

As an administrator, I’ve been slowly trying to get teachers to integrate technology but, for some things, I don’t allow a option. You get memos, school and division email and other correspondence via email. School activites are now posted on our staff wiki calendar. I’m hoping to get each of our PLC’s groups to begin using a wiki or group collaboration tool to work on their ideas during the month so that we are not trying to do everything at our once a month meeting. I’m also looking at having each teacher set up an online website that is linked to the school site and help teachers to maintain it during the year by posting photos, podcasts and other things. I’m actually hoping to move to having each student use an online desktop to do work so that they can transfer items from school to home without the hassle of email. With all the tools available, we should be able to do a few things that make life a little easier for everyone.

GO ISLANDERS GO!