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Week 7 - Customer Service from the Fischbowl

Last week, I talked about the article from the Fishbowl blog on why there is little to no excuse as to why a teacher should be what is considered "Computer Illiterate" in 2008. I read through several of the Fischbowl articles looking for a "good one" for me to blog about for this assignment. Well, most of the articles were a little to technically oriented for me (but were right up the alley for my husband who is an IT Manager). There was one article I could relate to, the May 16, 2007 blog on Customer Service. After watching the YouTube video on HP's customer service (or lack of), I was reminded of the same level of customer service I received from a "technician" when my AT&T DSL at home went down and my husband was too busy at work to help me. I was treated far worse then the poor HP customer on the video. My husband has had similar experiences with higher level technical support (especially the "outsourced to a foreign country kind"). The level o f phone support these days is just horrible.

The Fischbowl blog touched on two levels of understanding for me; his view of "customer service" and how my future profession directly relates to being a "customer service rep" to my students. On one level, there is a problem with many people today not being versed in computer operation on basic levels, as touched on by last weeks blog. I know that I must have a firm grasp on computer technology at a good enough level not only help myself become a better teacher, and therefor better service my students using all the modern tools, but to become what my husband calls a "Power User;" someone who can help themselves most of the time with computer operations and only call on support for the really big problems. The better I understand computers, the better support I can be to my students. On the other level, I must be able to better serve my students no matter how busy I might be during the week. The better prepared I am by being more "computer literate" (or a Power User), the better I can help students solve problems by not just solving a problem for them, but showing them how I got to the solution and therefore giving them a deeper understanding of the problem. "Give a man a fish; you feed him for a day...teach that man how to fish; you feed him for a lifetime"

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Is it OK for a Teacher to be Technologically Illiterate Today?

Week 6

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html

I personally believe that your analogy of “If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write,” would have been more true of an analogy, if the subject would have been a teacher not knowing Mathematics 30 years ago rather than to read and write. There is a TV commercial I see a lot concerning the subject of computer literacy (or a simple solution to computer illiteracy). It is a “Video Professor” commercial advertising a fast and easy way to learn Microsoft Office for those who are “computer illiterate”. In the commercial, there is a woman who states, “My three year old can work a computer better than me,” and ceremoniously laughs it off as if she is part of the majority. I thought to myself how sad this is of someone who is not much older than 30, and still has no idea how to operate a computer in any way, especially if a three year old knows how to operate a computer (and that is probably only how to turn it on and off).

Technology is becoming more and more integrated into everyday life, not just the office or the classroom. Computers have become smaller and cheaper and are now being integrated into hand held devices such integrated cell phones (PDA’s), home security systems, fast cash bank terminals, and a whole lot more. Simply put, computers are everywhere and it is just as strange for a very young person to not be familiar with a computer is it would be for me to not be familiar with an airplane. Schools are requiring more and more computerized testing and learning; banks are moving more and more transactions to online services, as well as many other areas of education and commerce are requiring some sort of computer literacy just to operate your accounts by having to know how to operate a web browser, send an email, open and read an attachment with the proper applications and so on. As our class blogged about the ALEX and ACCESS sites and their usefulness to students, educators, and administrators; it is evident that now, more then three or four years ago, that computer illiteracy in today’s educators has no place, especially when it only takes a few weeks to a few months to learn how to operate a computer sufficiently enough to use it as a tool to enhance your teaching and administration. There are a great many basic computer education classes offered either in Adult Life Long Learning programs at Universities nation wide or at private institutions that offer computer training for beginners for the office environment. While the teacher can get away with teaching without computer literacy and therefore potentially propagating this down to her students, it is kind of like teaching the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but, never going beyond into the advanced mathematics such as algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. You will have students who learn basic commerce , but you will not produce any engineers.

WEEK 5

Blog 1 - British School of Amsterdam

The main page for the middle school is laid out as a daily information and announcement log much like the previous weeks blogs in the USA. The navigation buttons are nicely laid out to the right hand side of the page in a column which will navigate you to the individual curriculum pages. There is also links to other schools and links to pod cats as well.

Blog 2 - Nelson Central School, Nelson, New Zealand 2006

This is a blog from a from a New Zealand elementary school compound (I would say campus, but it is more like a compound of small villas designated as classrooms). The main link to the school site has a "blogs" link that takes you to the blog listings of the 19 individual classroom blogs.

To get to the blog listings of each class, click here

Here is a slide show if Renwick 3's Slide show:

Blog 1 - http://lewiselementary.org/ from the Meriwether Elementary School, Portland, Oregon

I personally find this blog one of the best educator blogs I have seen yet. This is a very intuitive blog used by the entire school. This blog has eleven main sections easily navigated by a tool bar across the top of the page just under the main banner. You can navigate to: About; Calendar; Principal; Notes; Curriculum; Class Notes; Lunch; Music; Partners; PPS; PTA; and Staff. Each link directs you to a blog page that is full of the latest news and information on each subject. To make each page even more useful to teachers, students, administrators, and parents alike, are addition useful links for more information outside the school.

Blog 2 - http://marykreul.teacherhosting.com/blog/ from Richards Elementary School, Whitefish Bay, WI

This is another very well laid out blog that has good “eye-appeal” much like the one I described above. The navigation is different with only four main categories: Recent Posts, Links, Categories, and Archives. The main page is more or less, a ‘current events’ (or a traditional “most recent posts” blog page). The current events, announcements, schedules, and other school related activities are all on the main page. There is a readily available search tool above the categories section, so it is very easy to navigate this page and find what you are looking for quickly.