Barriers+For+Teachers

Malcolm Gladwell talks about the concept of the "tipping point" before major ideas, products or practices become accepted and commonplace. Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom is still the domain of pioneering teachers who face numerous challenges because they are still very few in number. They face barriers and obstacles both in their actual use of Web 2.0 tools, as well as educating their fellow colleagues about the benefits and potential they can clearly see. Barriers faced: - over zealous school web filtering systems that block a lot of potentially useful social software tools - issues of copyright and intellectual property when utilising and remixing digital material with their students as publishing to the web removes most, if not all, of the "fair use" rights of the education setting - issues of moderation of student material and possible inappropriate use of Web 2.0 tools - lack of support from school leadership either because this innovation isn't valued or there isn't room in the timetable due to testing requirements, mandated curriculum or just doesn't suit the current crop of teachers - "time poor" teachers who "can't possibly fit another thing in" - access to computing facilities and hardware to allow students opportunity to use Web 2.0 tools - teachers who feel uncomfortable at relinquishing the role of "expert" and allowing student access to tools they themselves are not proficient with - teachers who are simply unaware of the changing nature of information and the multiliteracies used by their students outside of their classroom - teachers fearful of encountering inappropriate material or offensive interaction with others on the web - teachers who feel that they are already so far behind their students that they feel they will never catch up