We don't know what we don't know

The response today from a teacher after asked this question:

What specific Technology training would you find helpful next year?

We don't know what we don't know

A very appropriate response I felt. How many teachers feel like this? They don't want another PowerPoint session, yet they do not know what else beyond that exists. What happened in Technology training that teachers were trained really well how to use PowerPoint and then we stopped. Meanwhile students produce PowerPoint presentations in astonishing numbers. Why? Because "We know what we know" and what teachers know is PowerPoint.

If teachers knew about blogs, understood how they could be using and how to integrate them, would they become as popular as PowerPoint? What if teachers had as much training on blogs, wikis, and web 2.0 as they have had over the last 5 years in PowerPoint. Would we see the same use?

Another teacher stated:

PowerPoint is easy, it just replaced the poster. We (teachers) could see how to use it, understood it, and had a place for it in our classroom.

Sounds like doing old things in new ways to me! Maybe that's the jump we can't make. Maybe blogs, wikis, and Web 2.0 force us to make that jump to doing new things in new ways, and for many it's just time consuming to learn and then take the leap into that 'new things in new ways' realm.

The exciting part is getting teachers to admit "We don't know what we don't know" in knowing there is something new, something out there they have to learn. The problem is they don't know what it is they need to learn, and who is suppose to teach it to them? I guess those are the next questions that need to be answered.

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