I did some blogvangelism yesterday at the Educational Media Association
of NJ conference for about 40 or so library specialists. The cool thing
was that I co-presented with the librarian from my school, and we gave
them a pretty comprehensive overview of how blogs are being used in
schools and libraries. We had a lot of people asking questions and
running ideas by us, and it was obvious, as it usually is, that this
was a technology they could see using with their teachers and students.
Except for a lack of tech support, and a lack of vision, and a lack of
time. One person said that she had gone to her superintendent and asked
about using blogs and he just flat out said “NO.” When she asked why,
he said something to the effect of “We don’t want to open up that can
of worms.” Hmmm. Another person said she just knew with 100% certainty
that her tech person wouldn’t consider the idea, that it was just too
far out of the box. I got that sense to one degree or another from a
lot of the other people there. While most were, I think, really
impressed by what we were doing, they just didn’t see it happening at
their own schools.
That is one of my frustrations, these days, but I’m also getting over
it. I’ve just come to realize that the window for doing “Intro to the
Read/Write Web” type presentations is probably about five years or
more. It’s education, stupid.
But here is the real kicker.
In both of the presentations I did this week, a woman raised her hand
and said basically word for word the same thing: “When I told my
daughter that I was going to a presentation on blogs, she said ‘NO! You
can’t do blogs in schools! Blogs are OURS!’”
I swear to god… Too funny. And too clearly native vs. immigrant
related. But that’s what education does with technology. Stays behind
the curve… Now that IS frustrating.
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