NOTE: hAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. tHE BLOG WILL only type in capital letter!!
Jenny’s lecture about Conservative Dynamicism, iINSTITUTIONAL ISOMORPHISM and sociocultural homeostasis hit close to home for me today. Schools aren’t really set up for change. If teachers are happy teaching the way they taught 10 or even 5 years ago, then they aren’t going to be initializing or supporting change. It is a strange feeling when I walk into a school and can feel that they are really set in their ways. In these particular schools that have a negative outlook on integrating technology, there are some teachers that I know of who would be completely onboard if they were given a chance to make changes in their classroom by using technology. It only needs to start slowly. I think if one teacher in the school was adamant to use whatever technology they had in the classroom than news would spread. With this being said, that particular teacher would have to talk about it a lot, and have constant dialogue with about the good experiences. If one teacher can break through the resistant barriers of the schools, and has enough ambition to barge ahead, I think their next step is get students parents to be ICT advocates. Parents will reflect the need for this kind of change back to the administration.
I good question to ask ourselves is “what are we doing in our classroom today that we didn’t do last year?”
“What are we doing in our classroom today that wasn’t possible three years ago?
If you have ever tried to change a life habit, you know how difficult it is the sustain that change over time. That explains the diet industry and self-help books. Even when people have deeply compelling reasons to change, they will find themselves reverting to the comfort of habits when maintaining the change becomes too difficult. What can we do to counter this? We connect with others who are also committed to implementing change, who are as committed as we are to changing the status quo and moving into unknown, uncharted waters. We can look at the cognitive, cultural and technological dimensions of change, and we can get better at understanding how to design for change, implement change, deliberate change, and implement change. We can learn how to use what we know about inquiry-based learning and apply that knowledge to implementing change in learning activities, school structure, and the formation of learning relationships in schools.
I like your comparison with the diet industry. That is very true. People know they should change their lifestyle, they know there is support, and proven research with reasons for why they should eat healthy but they are not ready to commit right now. Maybe next month.
Teaching is a team profession. Teachers need respect, support. and positive reinforcement from other teachers before they take small steps towards change.