

Ditching ed-tech for fashion-tech - mnavada
http://mariannenavada.com/its-not-me-its-you/

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The stalemate between teachers vs. administrators vs. students vs. tools/funds
is nearly impossible to beat. The lack of tech-literacy (at the most basic
level) among teachers is astounding, and the only thing more astounding is the
real entrenched/entitled reticence to learn anything new (or that new =
bothersome/bad). The overwhelming majority of MS and HS students are far more
tech-literate than their teachers, and use that knowledge to
learn/research/communicate/create more efficiently and pragmatically than the
systems advocated by schools. Worst of all, most teachers don't seem to be
bothered by the glaring lack of their own tech
literacy/learning/implementation, at all?

When your teachers can't use email, upload content, or use grading
software/excel, there's a problem. When teachers can't figure out how to use
iPads, get youtube videos to work, or explain a single practical application
of math, science, or engineering at the most basic level, in 2013... there's a
real crisis.

This is one of the major reasons I just left my job, after 8 years in public
education. Upon telling my principal I was leaving to pursue programming, she
laughed at the impossibility ("That is for like... computer people? There's no
way you could learn that!? What are you even going to do with that anyway?").

I start an engineering fellowship in the spring, and already can work in
Python and HTML/CSS. It wasn't that hard to learn, I did it in 3 months. I
could've taught it to MS students, easily. I also could've used a program like
Chalktips in the classroom or as homework, to encourage graphic design
aesthetics while students gained fluency with new/unfamiliar software and
[web]searches (I think this is a critical skill), and still accomplish my
overall teaching goal for that unit. However, my principal would've been
unhappy with the results, purely because they were computer generated (and
that's not "real" work). So Chalktips, in that way, would've been doomed from
the start.

I don't really know what to say to education startups... the ideas may be
fantastic, but the implementation is almost impossible.

FWIW, it looked like a solid platform. If I was still in education, I'd have
advocated for it (even if only to be shot down by my superiors and peanut-
gallery parents).

~~~
mnavada
Aaawww, this reply made me very emotional, in a good way :) It's great to know
that I'm not alone in this frustration. I understand that sometimes it's not
always the teachers, it's also administration, and the students. I currently
teach a large 3 hour lecture hall at night (6 PM to 10 PM). No matter how I
try to be entertaining or make the class more engaging, half the class is on
the phone or about to sleep :( But I can't blame them. The 3 hour lecture
format is antiquated.

Congrats on the career change, engineering fellowship, and the courage to
learn something new! I'm not surprised it didn't take you only a few months to
learn. With patience and love for what you do, anything is possible. You're
very inspiring!

I know HTML and CSS, and I would love to learn Python and JavaScript.
Chalktips was written in Python, and MagTag. My husband is the CTO and he
wrote all the code. Just two married couple wanting to build tech tools :)

