Nov
3
What Are You Waiting For?
November 3, 2008 | Tagged CUE | Leave a Comment
“Nothing to be done. “
Is that how you feel sometimes? Do you occasionally feel frustrated? Are you waiting for the next trend or the “best” way to integrate technology into your curriculum? Then, you’d feel at home with Gogo’s opening line from the first play I directed, Waiting for Godot, a nice existentialist piece by Samuel Beckett. Didi and Gogo, alone on a country road, are waiting for Godot to come to them. He doesn’t and they stand around passing time wondering what it all means. It was a great first play for a young theatre arts major who was pursuing a teaching career. Twice, a young boy comes to tell them that Mr. Godot is unable to come that day. Strangely, instead of choosing to follow the boy back to Mr. Godot, both characters decide to stay where they are and wait.
Didi: Well? What do we do?
Gogo: Don’t let’s do anything. It’s safer.
Didi: Let’s wait and see what he says.
Didi and Gogo take the safe route, biding their time and deferring all decisions until their authority, Godot, tells them what to do. They do wonder, though, whether they can make decisions for themselves.
Didi: Let’s wait till we know exactly how we stand.
Gogo: On the other hand it might be better to strike the iron before it freezes.
Didi: I’m curious to hear what he has to offer. Then we’ll take it or leave it.
In an era with NCLB requirements, high-stakes tests, program improvement, and pacing guides, you might be tempted to take the safe route and to wait for your own technology Godot. It won’t be arriving anytime soon, though. Like Didi and Gogo, you have to make your own meaning and find your own way. The truth is that there is no best hardware, software, Web 2.0 tool, or activity to integrate into your lessons. There is only trying, and that can be scary.
Gogo: Let’s post student essays on a class blog.
Didi: We can’t.
Gogo: Why not?
Didi: We’re waiting for (select one): 1) the district technology plan; 2) the pacing guide; 3) the CST to finish; 4) the district web filter; 5) more computers; 6) more professional development; 7) someone else to say it’s ok; or 
all of the above.
So, what’s a teacher to do? As the Stephen Stills song goes, “And if you can’t be, with the one you love, Love the one you’re with.” Using the technology you have rather than the technology you’d like, find activities that help make your curriculum more authentic to your students. It only takes one computer to write and post student writing to a blog or wiki. A small, inexpensive MP3 player is perfect for recording student podcasts or having students narrate public domain novels from Librivox. One computer, a web cam, and Skype (free) are all your students need to video conference with others around the world. The variety of free Web 2.0 and free lesson plans increases daily as others tread the path ahead of you. Follow any of their leads.
In addition, the Palm Springs CUE Conference, your local CUE affiliate, and the CUE Community <http://community.cue.org> are perfect places to meet with others, gather ideas, and chart a course to integrate technology into your class.
It’s easy to say no and to wait for the technology/curriculum Godot to tell you what to do or to give you permission. However, Godot isn’t coming to your classroom or to your department meeting anytime soon. In the end, we all have to make find our own way. Find your own Godot.
brian bridges, brianbridges, cue, clrn
