Will Richardson’s statement @PLP this week made me realise just how many ‘yeah buts’ I’ve heard in the last couple of years, which must be tiny in comparison to the amount Will and Sheryl have.
What he said was so relevant “it’s not about the students, the system, the syllabus or the the technology … it’s about you … what do you want to do in your classroom that will better prepare kids for what comes next”.
He was talking about the real fact that teachers hold a massive moral and professional responsibility to recognise, as Stephen Heppell put it this week, “if we are intending to create 21st century centres of learning and in that 21st century – connected learners, then when you use technology to teach, then use in in ways that are not 20th Century.
What is your yeah but? – It doesn’t matter if you are in computer classroom all the time, are hardly at all, the key thing is that you answer your own yeah but.
So I made a poster of the ‘yeah buts’ I meet all the time. Got more?
Playable 
For some people there is always a reason not to try or start something. I work with someone who can’t get past the need (his need) for a curriculum audit before we introduce anything new. There’s a fantastic video on Youtube which is actually an ad for an IT company which is about people who build planes in the sky. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWE5-KQYGl8 I think it sums up the way we should be working with technology – you can’t wait for the infrastructure/the equipment/whatever to be perfect, you just have to get in and start doing it.
yeah but, only when we’ve got the infrastructure and skills can we think about changing. Thanks Heather!
“Yeah but, it won’t work for MY subject.” Hear that one a lot.
Yeah but…
I haven’t got time!
I have a life!
I don’t see the point.
Some teachers think technology is the answer to everything, but it’s not!
Yeah but…
I don’t want to look bad in front of my students
We’ve done this kinda thing before and it didn’t work
My students can’t even type
A ‘yeah but’ I often hear is ‘what about the dangers?’ A lot of the time I don’t think teachers realise how much the kids are doing at home anyway. Even if teachers are only just beginning to explore the technology available to them, many of their students are not…they are well on the journey. As Will & Sheryl pointed out at the PLP meeting- we have a responsibility to equip our students with the skills to survive & flourish in an online world.
Hey- another one I hear is that ‘we don’t have enough hardware’. One to one laptop access is seen as the only way learning can take place….rubbish!
Yeah but… who’s going to provide the pd for me? And then it’s – yeah, but I don’t have time to stay back ‘another’ afternoon after school. Lost count of how many times I’ve heard this.
Oh great poster – and nice thoughts. Yeah but… I wish everyone had seen them!
Love the poster! Georgia’s brilliant past Governor, Roy E. Barnes (1999 -January 2003) lamented the trend toward “excuse-based” education. Unfortunately, after Governor Barnes implemented a statutory requirement providing incentive for 96,000 Georgia educators to receive technology training, he was defeated in his run for a 2nd term. The “excuses” prevailed. So sad. Such a loss to our state.
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But there is a list of yeah buts that follow the list above -yeah but ANYONE can do it
yeah but it does not cost to use Web2.0
yeah but the tools are simple to learn
yeah but the students expect to use online tools
yeah but any minor inconvenience is balanced out by engaged involved students
Do 2 yeah buts lead to positive action?
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