Wrap-up from St. Mike's class on Society and Community

What do you do when you plan your presentation on your blog and you get to where you are going and their network and internet connection is down? Um....you panic? You pray? You cry?

Well, I didn't really do any of that this morning when I found out that the St. Mikes network was fried ... I tried some alternative options and basically decided that since they had a white board and markers, and I had my notes on my crackberry...I was ready for anything.

And then...

The internet and network gods smiled upon me and like magic the interweb allowed us to connect!

After that it was a whirlwind of video, conversation, white board markers, Q&A and sandbox talk. Great fun.

I certainly do not envy the K-12 educators and administrators in their challenges to integrate technology and social media into their classrooms -- not only do they have to educate our children, they have to battle near-sighted policies that block technologies from a place of fear rather than a place of learning and providing information. They have to educate paranoid parents and deal with school boards who are even more paranoid AND if they do the wrong thing, funding gets pulled, voters don't vote for budgets and they could even get fired.

No wonder our children are getting left behind. Too bad we are too afraid to give our teachers the tools they need and the room they need to provide the guidance our children need in order to learn and grow.

Um...how do I feel about it? Betcha can't tell!

The other side note for this one was the great surprise I had when I saw my daughter's principal and my former parish priest, Fr. Bernie, who is now the principal and Rice High School, in the group. I was honored to be able to be in a room with these two individuals and the rest of the individuals in the room who do so much for our children every day. Have you hugged a teacher today? You should!