Fact or Fiction: What’s Your Story?
Apr 4th, 2009 by Cathy Jo Nelson
Gather around and read or listen to my story. Have any of you had a similar experience?
Scene 1 Library
(Ring-Ring goes the phone)
Mrs. Teacher Librararian Media Specialist/Tech Person (TLMSTP): Hello, this is Mrs. TLMSTP
School Secretary: Hey there Mrs TLMSPT. Our principal needs you right away in the gym.
Mrs TLMSTP: Okay I’m on my way.
Scene 2 – Gym
(Picture many tables set up for the Career Day festivities. Community members are setting up displays promoting a career for students to browse through.)Mrs TLMSTP: I’m here. How can I help?
School Principal: Just the person for the job! Thanks for coming so quickly. I need you to get our presenters hooked up with the wifi signal for their computers so they can be ready when students come to the career day program in here.
Mrs TLMSTP: You’re joking right?
School Prncipal: No, I’m serious. Just look around. Many have brought laptops. Some have even brought projectors and portable screens. They are all asking where the wifi signal is so they can be ready to share resources about their particular career to our students.
Mrs TLMSTP: (pulling School principal aside away from anyone within earshot and asking) Are you allowed to give out that secure code for the wifi for visitors? Remember, you, the curriculum coach, and the science coach are the only ones in the building that have access to the wifi—no one else does. I will need the code. Oh and because we are in the gym, the signal may not come this far. The gym is two buildings away from those offices. Have you ever tried to access your wifi from here before?
School Principal: I don’t think I have the code. It was set up for me. I don’t understand. Can’t anyone access the wifi? They just can’t access the network. What do we have to do to provide wifi to our guests. Clearly they came in expecting a wifi signal.
Mrs. TLMSTP: What do we have to do? We have to have a frank conversations with the powers that be in charge of wifi access at the district level. That is not me, and apparently not you either. Mrs School Principal, doesn’t it speak volumes when our community business people come to school ready to share their career expecting a signal we can’t produce?
School Principal: We did not know they would need connectivity. Clearly the business sector is way ahead with their 21st Century expectations than our school is. Yes, this calls for a frank conversation with someone, doesn’t it? Make a note please for our debriefing. Next year career day invitees will need to explicitly express the need for an Internet connection upon accepting the invitation to present to students. Sigh. Now I have to go let them know we cannot accommodate this request. Thanks anyway.
Fact or Fiction?
While the storyline is primarily fiction, this is basically a true story of a conversation I had with my principal yesterday just before our career day festivities. I think it speaks volumes about where education in my area is in terms of technology. If our community expects it, why aren’t we there yet?
We were both a bit embarrassed and disappointed that we could not provide our invited guests with an expected wifi signal. Some of the guests did have their own airport cards that gained them an Internet connection–they came prepared. But others were just mildly shocked to discover our school could not offer a wifi signal.
www.flickr.com/photos/88251828@N00/442481278
It definitely is a problem. And the further problem I’ve seen at my school is that since they’re connecting through our proxy server, they often can’t access the web sites they need. (The strangest things will get blocked by our filters. I can go to icanhascheezburger anytime I want, but some pages of college web sites are blocked.) Presenters who visit the school frequently have learned to put their presentation on a flash drive so they can use one of our wireless laptops, and to let me know what web sites and exact pages they will need well in advance so I can contact our network administrator and have them unblocked. I’ve never tried our wireless in the gym or auditorium to see if it works there. I’ll do that this week now that you’ve given me the thought. Thanks.
Yes, I think I made my principal aware there is a conversation of a collaborative nature that needs to take place among the Career Day Planners (Guidance), me, and the invited attendees so we can actually meet their needs on that special day, and not have to disappoint anyone, particularly the kids or guests. But more importantly, the principal suddenly experienced first hand how another sector of society is leaving us behind. We should be offering wifi. I believe Doug Johnson told me in his district, every school has a server for networked “protected” programs and such, and one for open access by anyone (though it is filtered to a small degree.) THIS is where we all need to be.
Cathy,
At my school, even if the guests had wifi access, they would not be able to use it; it is set up so that only school owned computers can connect to the network. I can’t take my laptop to school and connect to the network. I understand the logic behind not letting just anyone in. Seems like Doug’s district has it right.
Glad that this light bulb moment happened for your principal, although it did come amid embarrassment. If we want to bring in more community speakers, we have to accommodate their needs. Life outside of the school walls operates much differently than life inside it.
Hope and pray I can bring that vision to my new job. I do believe my current district as a whole is on the brink of this revelation. Strong leadership is expanding the vision for sure.
Your story just points up the lack of administrative leadership that so many of us experience. The principal should have anticipated this need, not just reacted to it. We are crippling our staff and our students by a lack of basic 21st century tools for information access, collaboration, creation, and communication.
My principal assumed it was something available, and is more than ready to have this conversation at a higher level on the food chain of school admin. My joy comes from her first hand experience. I do realize though that many schools and districts are no where near this conversation.
Sadly, this situation is typical in most school systems. My district wouldn’t have allowed access to the network, wireless or not, by any outside computer. We do have wireless laptop carts that can be used in our gym, but it would require the visitors bring their materials on a thumb drive and they would risk sites being blocked by our filters. Especially sites that have ANY social network features, forums, or chats on them. Thanks for bringing this scenario to my attention. I’ll be better prepared if something like this happens at my school.
Another take is the idea that WiFi is a panacea. At my soon to be former school, we have three WiFi access points on the back hall and 100 laptops for the sixth grade to use on those points. Now, I spend a good chunk of every day getting calls about why the laptops are so slow or why the internet keeps timing out. No matter how hard I try, I cannot explain to these teachers the difference between 54mbs on a wifi signal and 1GBs on the wired fiber network. I just hope wherever I land next has done their homework before turning teachers loose. Oh, and next year, they are adding 100 wireless MacBooks via an E2T2 grant to an already overloaded wifi system. Chaos reigning anyone?
That senario goes to show that technology is growing rapidly within our communities. Teachers cannot continue to ignore it. Technology is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity when it comes to teaching, and we have to make sure that we are equipped for today and tomorrow. Thanks for posting this blog.
I love the story. The last minute planning and expectation that technology would be instantaneously available made me chuckle. All too real.
This is becoming more of an issue every day. I’m also amazed that when I go to conferences, that wifi is not available in the conference center. I was told at our state CEC conference that it would have cost us hundreds of dollars to give people access to wifi. And I don’t understand why it should cost that much other than for them to make money.
thank you for linking back to my flickr stream
I’ve read three of your articles tonight and just came across this one last. I got teary eyed from hearing you were pausing WoW after having spent 15 minutes on your blog. So, best of luck! I’ve learned so much in just 5 minutes and I thank you for it. Your writing skills are unmatchable. You must make a wonderful parent!