Saturday, June 19, 2010

School Tech Connect: Tolerance Can Actually Be A Virtue

School Tech Connect: Tolerance Can Actually Be A Virtue

Tolerance Can Actually Be A Virtue

Reer. (cat noise)

I understand what he's saying, but the whole "zero tolerance" language leads to trouble.

If I were back in the classroom, I would think long and hard before committing to a tech-centric, web-energized, project-based approach unless I had a really good 1:1 laptop program, awesome connectivity at school and in the homes of my students, freedom from draconian filters, and permission to go off-script, as it were.

I think if I were in a school with, for example, a laptop cart that I had to check out and which sucked no matter how wonderful the tech director made it sound, or in a school where I had to ask for every little thing to be unfiltered, or if I were in an environment with little tolerance for anything less than perfect, polished final-draft quality work on display, then I would probably not do too much with technology because unless the deployment is rich and elegant, technology can be a hindrance.


Speaking as an English teacher, if I were in a school where I had to sign up for and trudge down to a computer lab, I would not bother. I've done writers' workshops both ways, and I'd rather have a good discussion of writing