All 5 steps of CATCHsystem have been explained. We discussed the importance of a good Messaging system and how much of an information and organization hub it is. Productivity is the most important step in CATCHsystem because you can have the best technology, but if you can’t be productive, it’s another obstacle instead of a help. Knowing and understanding Sites will allow you to collect, share, store, send, and change data of all kinds. This is becoming more essential to our digital lives every day. Documents training makes creating, organizing, analyzing and presenting data much easier and more efficient. Understanding Media is powerful. Gone are the days that the teacher in the schoolhouse is the keeper of all information and if you behave you might have access to it. Information is much different now, young people in South Africa can communicate and share information with others in New York City with a computer and an internet connection. This is where we are with CATCHsystem.
So now I’d like to take some time to tell you where it came from:
Lots of college graduates believe they have the tools and training to take on the world and make a big difference. They believe that changing the world is a matter of applying the knowledge they have newly acquired. As an Elementary Education major, I had dreams of changing the world one classroom at a time. After graduating in 2005 and receiving my first job as a Middle School Science teacher, I was excited to get started, and thought my colleagues would feel the same way. I also thought they would have a lot of the same training and skills I had. It didn’t take long to find out that I wasn’t starting out at the bottom and working my way up the teacher ladder.
I thought I would need to learn a lot of ins and outs before completely taking over the world. But it didn’t work that way. There were a lot of gaps with many teachers, especially in the technology and productivity department. I quickly became one of the ‘technology people’ at the school. It wasn’t because I had any great training or experience with computers, it was the fact that schools are so far behind in training and implementation. Soon, I was helping turn projectors on and off, fixing email login issues, helping others find ways to use laptops in their classroom, suggesting videos that went along with content and showing examples of how I was using technology in my classroom. It often became difficult to get my lessons ready, let alone create new and interesting stuff for my students. As good as it felt to help other teachers, it felt as though every step forward had two steps back. As soon as all teachers were trained and comfortable with something (email server, grading software, projector, etc.) it would be replaced with something else. All the time and work down the drain and back around the school to train we would go.
Throughout the 5 years I spent in Middle School, I began formulating and writing down ideas. I didn’t have a lot of time to put all the ideas together because I was spending about 10-12 hours a day in my classroom completing mounds of paperwork (and my wife tried very hard to help me separate school and personal life). So I decided to continue my education by returning for a doctorate degree and dedicate my research focus to creating a system that could help alleviate the technology and productivity issues I saw in the Middle School. As more and more ideas were written down, edited, discussed and then presented to others, eventually the CATCHsystem took shape. The original intent of it was for teachers to become comfortable with technology. The idea was to present simple steps that could be used and implemented with technology. Although teachers are an extremely important ingredient in the system, it’s actually students that are the main focus. After all, they are what education is all about. They are the ones we spend 12 hours a day serving. They are the ones that make all the headaches, frustration and burnout somehow bearable. They are the ones we trust with the future and hope to make things better. CATCHsystem is truly designed to catch students where they are so we can help them create the future we all want see. If students are facing uncertain futures where most of the jobs and technologies they’ll be using haven’t been invented yet, then teachers and administrators have a lot of work to do. Not only are schools behind in their knowledge and implementation of technology, but the students are not being served because they’re so far ahead and bored. Teachers are not the information leaders any longer. They have to step aside and admit that information can be found elsewhere. And instead of believing we can control students' use of technology, we have to teach them how to use it for the benefit of all of us. Teachers have to CATCH up to students so that they can lead students in the right direction, rather than keep them from it. Let’s use what we have to prepare students for the future, let’s use a simple step-by-step system that will allow teachers to be the technology leaders they should be and not the barrier that they sometimes are. Let’s use CATCHsystem as a tool to educate our most precious resource, our students.
Thank you! :)
Thank you! :)