Different Ways To Skin A Cat

For the past year, I have learned so much about various instructional technologies! The more I learn, the more I want to know! It's overwhelming to think about everything that is available out there to help improve upon instruction! However, when I volunteer in the local classrooms and the local school libraries, I feel saddened that very little, if any, of these technologies are even being used. I'm guessing that some of the reasons for this are lack of training, lack of school funding, lack of motivation, or maybe just plain ole' lack of interest. Yet, unfortunately, it is our children who suffer from these decisions.

How fun would it be for our children to go to school and blog with students from around the world? How awesome would it be for our children to obtain skills that would help them turn their writings and artwork into digital stories? How interesting it would be to download and listen to a podcast from an expert on a topic that is being studied in school. These are simple technologies that our children, presently, will not experience - at least, not in school.

This has been weighing on my mind a lot lately - especially since I have three young school-aged children. Because I feel powerless to change the schools - even though I have offered my help to teachers on numerous occasions - I have decided to try and reach students, parents, and educators through the public library.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an email to the Director of Columbus Metropolitan Library with my ideas for the library providing training on various technologies. After graciously reading my email and responding back to me, he forwarded the email on to the appropriate staff in his organization. Yesterday I met with, and presented my ideas to, the manager of Youth Services. Thankfully, she was just as excited and enthusiastic about the ideas as I was. We are now in the process of setting up a task force and will, hopefully, start developing an outline for presentation to upper management. Ideally, we will be providing some much-needed training on various technologies in the very near future! As my dad always said when I was growing up, "There are many different ways to skin a cat!".