Catalyst

Was searching around tonight and came across dswaters’ post on I didn’t start the fire, and also robynjay’s post on Firewalls of the mind. Congratulations to whoever brought you all together.

I am from the “Tech” side, and used to think along the lines of “Filter to protect (both our students and our network).” After a couple of years working along side a colleague (Teacher) I now look at this in very different ways. In usual fashion we locked horns and butted heads. The never ending “I want to be able to teach” vs. “I want to keep my network safe,” but then we started talking. We shared our desires to see our students educated. To be excited about their world, and the never-ending opportunities that the digital age is opening up.

We need to allow our Teachers and our Learners to search the world. There definitely needs to be a dialogue between the both parties. We can try and block for moral protection, but that doesn’t teach our students about living in their digital world.

I have just returned from the Expanding Learning Horizons conference, held in Lorne in Victoria. It is a huge event aimed at Teachers and Educators, Visionaries, and also Technicians and IT Managers. In saying that, we shared a few keynote presentations, then the two groups split into their own streams.

I was so inspired that I only attended the educators’ streams. I am really starting to get my head around the truth that teachers need to be able to teach, and learners need to have access.

You may notice that this is basically the reply I left to robynjay’s post; this was one of the catalysts for my Teacher Friendly Tech blog.