Just 2 questions…
Dec 16th, 2008 by Cathy Nelson
I read this in my reader tonight (yeah, I’m a wee bit behind…) and was struck by the conversation on how to interview people for a school going 1:1 (one computer per student) with technology. Since reading in Doug’s post tonight about predictions for 2020 (just 12 years away) it is not unreasonable to assume that students will be coming to school with a pocket pc of one variety or another VERY SOON–after all, Santa Clause is coming to town…. I would almost wager that 30-40% of my students right now have one tucked away in their pockets or purses. How long before we stp banning them and instead embrace them? 2020–8 years?
So my friend Doug suggests two questions he includes in interviews to add to Jeff Utecht’s list, and he offers the rationale for them:
- What was the last new piece of hardware or software you learned and how did you go about learning it? (Speaks to learning style, willingness to grow and change, personal interest in technology…)
- Would you describe an educational project of which you are proud? What did you learn as a teacher/librarian/tech from the experience. (We look for people with a past track record of going beyond the routine classroom activities and this gives those folks a chance to shine.)
Should these questions be a part of a job interview today? Would they intimidate prospective candidates? Are they asked with that intention? I’d love to do a survey of educators looking for a job — wonder if my district would actually let me use our annual job fair to conduct research on first of all the answer to these two questions should they be posed, and secondly, feelings about them being asked these types of questions.
I know I would have NO DIFFICULTY answering either one, but i fear many would stumble on one or both. Could these two questions complete an interview for an educator? What do you think….Wait–is asking the blogosphere like asking the echo chamber? Correction, you just became part of this informal research study.
Attribution:
www.flickr.com/photos/42788859@N00/318947873
Hi Cathy,
Were I an interviewee, I would figure out how to work my answers to these two questions into the conversation whether they were asked or not!
Doug
These are great questions for any/all educators, including administrators. I’d love to see how some of our building principals would answer… or attempt to avoid answering.