10 Things to Fear

On Thursday, Colleen Rose asked this million dollar question on her blog.

What holds us back from embracing technology in our daily practice?

Now, I could have taken the easy route and posted a reply to her blog but instead, I collaborated with my buddy Peter McAsh to come up with this Top 10 list big list.

We seem to have mastered Dropbox Paper so that was our platform for this collaboration.

Note that we’re not afraid to bite firmly on our tongues…

This isn’t necessarily a definitive list and there’s no order but it’s what we came up with.

Your mileage may vary.

Do you see yourself or a previous self or a colleague in there somewhere?

Please add to the list via comment.

We’ll send the entire list to Colleen. After all, she started it.

• The kids know more than I do
• I don’t have time; so many other things that are more important
• How do I know that it fits the curriculum?
• My school doesn’t have enough computers for every student to have their own
• I need a workshop on this
• Nothing worse than booking the lab, taking the entire class there, and then half the computers are broken
• It’s not in the curriculum
• Too much curriculum; not enough time to experiment
• I’m not sure I have a login on the school network.  Who do I ask?
• I have a Mac at home and the school has Windows
• The IT Department has the computers locked down and I can’t run the software I need
• What if the kids get into a porn site?
• I can teach the topic better without technology
• I’m a Google person trapped in a Microsoft world or vice versa
• Our computers are too old and not powerful enough
• I’m concerned about student privacy
• I’m concerned about my own privacy
• Somebody needs to be the champion of cursive
• Nobody has ever hacked my filing cabinet
• The printer never works – I have to print their work so I can mark it
• What if the technology isn’t charged and goes dead in class?
• I tried once and failed badly.  Once burned, twice shy.
• Phones are banned in my school
• The bulb in my data projector is burned out and my principal won’t replace it
• Nobody else does, why should I?
• What do I do when something goes wrong?
• I don’t want to show a weakness in my knowledge in front of the class
• I’ve never had a Scratch workshop; maybe my school could hire somebody
• What if a student puts 2 spaces after a period?
• What if their essay or report includes emoji?
• Many of the resources have US content. What about Canadian resources?
• It’s the librarian’s job
• How do I mark it?
• If my board or school thought it was important, they would do workshops and train me
• Two words – Fake News

On the other hand, TeachThought and Sylvia Duckworth seems to think that it’s worthwhile.

And for blogging, …

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