Our focus during class on Tuesday was who are our participants and what are their needs. Thinking about the information I’d like to share on inquiry, I’m struggling with my Intended audience. My reason for this is because initially I had decided that my project would be geared towards teachers, students and parents. Now, after starting to collect my information, it seems that most of what I will be sharing is focused on teachers. There will be a small section for students about formulating the “the big questions” for inquiry. Also, although parents can look at any part of the website, the only place they can really participate is in the “global connections” blog I will create on the website. Here teachers, students and parents can suggest ways in which our school can get involved and connect with places around the world. So, for now, the inquiry pages on the website will mostly be for teachers, but that is ok since the initial push for more inquiry-based learning will come from teachers.
During our group discussion on how to reel in our participants, we came up with the following:
Teenagers: love to connect-Facebook, twitter, Instagram, (wont be as difficult to pull them In But they need to be taught proper social responsibility is most important first.
Teachers: some reluctant of change so as we work with them on inquiry projects that end successfully, word of mouth will get others on board.
Parents: many parents are not involved at all so maybe those parents will never connect but others that do, send out newsletters or hold a general meeting at the beginning of the year. How can TL’s get involved in PTI’s???:
Taking into account teacher reluctance to engage socially through digital technology, it might be wise to plan a series of face to face encounter with technology – giving teachers a hands-on experience while providing them with some background on why it is important. It wouldn’t hurt to get them to read Why School and hold an in-school discussion group to talk about what Richardson is saying in his book and what it means for teachers in your school. Think about using technology to foster connectivity rather than simply provide information. There is more information than teachers can make sense of at present. They need to learn how to connect and discern information and online social experiences. I agree, Teachers, students, and parents are three very different learning groups, with different technological histories and dispositions, including their dispositions toward learning. They will all need to be treated as separate cases.