My first response to question three in chapter three is, “why reinvent the wheel?” Shared resources and programs on a network can alleviate duplications. Networking broadens your horizons as an educator. You can become part of a more global community by which to service your students and yourself. Network resources help new teachers, experienced teachers, and all level of students. Financially it is a big savings to school districts budgets. Sharing programs and resources are paramount to taking a book from the library.
As a new teacher, the first few years of teaching can be challenging. Having resources available as a way to help train, mentor and support new staff would be a great asset to administrators. Many new teachers often have limited time and resources, and may need to work at home. Having a network or resources available at your fingertips at home or in school is an attractive option for teachers who may not have free time till evening hours. Whenever teachers get together, inevitably they begin discussing what does and does not work in the classroom. Being part of an educator’s network would promote the sharing of new and creative ideas. Sometimes we think we are the only person with a particular problem. A teacher may be surprise to discover how many other persons have had the same problem and documented successes for their problem. This could save you hour/days of time searching for a solution.
Home schooling advocates could also benefit from networking. This site could be one that helps them to better understand objectives that need to accomplish for their children. This becomes another outlet for creativity and to check one’s progress against what other professional teachers are doing.
The pluses far out weigh the minuses. However, there are some concerns that come to mind as I think about shared resources. Privacy rights for those instructors/teachers who may want to publish a unique idea could prove problematic. Also the integrity of the resources must be maintained by someone. Deciding who would maintain the site and purity of information available along with any cost associated with the project would need to be resolved early on.
Another issue that comes to mind is the equipment and software availability. Will the resources be available to persons with older equipment or just persons with newly acquired software and technology?
The current trend in educations if for the teacher to become a facilitator to a student’s learning. This role means that a teacher becomes a research at trying to accommodate all learning styles. One way to meet that objectives is to have a large network system that would offer many ways to present an problem and its solutions. Technology, networking and digitizing information has far more items in the plus column than in the negative column.
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2 comments:
As a first year teacher, I definitely agree that it is advantageous to have resources and such shared on a network. I know so much of my lesson planning has come from the other teachers in my department and teacher networking websites.
Networking has always proved beneficial in any given profession; education is no different. There is a saying I've learned over the last couple of years as I have prepared for my ventures in the classroom: "teachers are the best thieves." Without the shared resources available, our lessons could become stagnate. It is ever so important to have the opportunities that technology can provide in order to better serve our students.
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