Collaboration; working together has long been taught to us in our younger years but once we finally grow up, the idea of collaborating and sharing ideas has been dismissed. The one place that it is important to collaborate is inside schools but that’s most likely the least place you’ll see it.
In the “WorldChanging” blog(http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006927.html), edubloggers and Suzie Boss collaborate to explain how teachers can reach out to the cyber world to help create greater connections while instilling project based learning in the classroom. After reading this blog, I thought about what I would do if I were placed in the unfortunate circumstance of working in a school with a lack of colleague collaboration.
Yes, not every school is down for collaboration but I believe every teacher should be prepared for the worse when first entering schools. We can’t always bet on being blessed on having great administration and fellow teachers to work with, therefore, why not collaborate with other peers who may or may not be in the same town let alone the same state?
This is where Web 2.0 technology comes into play. Transforming the teaching world may be simpler (in some aspects) than we think. Techniques like blogs wikispace, and podcasts are a few of many ways that teachers can collaborate with one another across boarders and continents. What stumps me is why teachers and administration have not embraced it all sooner? This is where isolation comes into place. Schools are now being mixed with teachers who have grown up with technological generation and teachers who have grown up with the traditional teaching techniques. Neither wants to teach one another and both don’t want to accept one another’s presence in the classroom.
Yes, I am part of the group that is being taught to teach using technology but that doesn’t mean I (we) must completely reject the traditional forms of teaching too. What use am I if I show a power point on a Smartboard? Is that really improving the learning experience for my students or is that sticking to the traditional form of teaching?
Like Roland Barth says, “If one day we educators could only disclose our rich craft knowledge to one another, we could transform our schools overnight”. In other words, in order to create an educational transformation, we must teach those who are cemented to the traditional forms of teaching, while at the same time, we must expect to learn things from them too.
