We have come across a lot of people in the education space who tell us that teachers are lazy and no matter what you give them they want ready-made content, so that their work is easy. In stark contradiction to this observation, we have found that teachers are struggling to identify with the ready-made content being fed to them on one hand and on the other, they are being forced to adopt complex technology solutions for content creation. Content creation is a tedious process for the initiated and a fearsome one for the uninitiated. So, when we asked, if given a simple enough tool (RazorBee Teacher’s Aid) and a large enough resource (Internet), will they create content? The answer we got was a resounding yes!
The most commonly heard refrain amongst teachers today is that students know technology more than we do. Do you think that is a comfortable statement for a teacher to make? Of course not, but it is so common today that we don’t even pay heed to it anymore. Instead, we continue to push the age old computers, thin clients and netbooks into schools.
When we land up in a school with RazorBee Teacher’s Aid, what really strikes us the eagerness of the teachers to adopt technology to improve their classrooms. The simplicity attracts them to the device but what keeps them going is their sense of ownership and the power of self creation on the platform. The first time we saw a teacher present to her class with content she had put together, I could see the pride in her eyes, that was obvious. I saw appreciation in the eyes of the students for their teacher’s efforts, that was an unexpected reward!
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So true!
Nice article.
Comment by sumit — March 15, 2010 @ 2:30 PM
hi,
there is always euphoria for a new product and for those who have been using the net to download and use for teaching.But sadly the percentage of teachers who put an extra efforts to dowload is very few and rare. All look at some readymade content to be availabe so that they can use it and hence the craze for digital content and many companies are into these arena siezing the opportunities.
As they say only when you taste success, you always want to win , so unless the teachers use the product and make her class more interesting and she gets satisfaction, the usage and euphoria may not last long.
The challenge would be to get first to these teachers and use their learning and feedback to showcase and make others take up the product.
all the artcle are very appropriate and very thought provoking.
Comment by rk — April 22, 2010 @ 1:12 PM
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, rk. I agree with you that there is always the euphoria of a new product and as it begins to wane the only thing that can keep someone going is if the usage either becomes a habit or it creates such superior results that using anything else doesn’t seem a good enough solution. If we strive to create something that is “just ok” and can be replaced with ready-made content easily by the teachers, then we are probably not doing a good job.
Comment by Sreeja — May 10, 2010 @ 11:58 AM