May we teach web skills in a risky environment?
Every educator perfectly knows that the environment that surrounds the teaching-and-learning act directly influences its quality: the worst affected is the apprentice.
The context I teach in is placed in what is called the most dangerous city in the world: Ciudad Juarez. Some of my students have had relatives —parents included— who have died in a violent way; family income is below poverty level; some of the students are head of household; pregnancy is present in teenagers students; just a very few have PC at home and internet access is either at school or in the cafe internet sites. The way the students access the Web is mainly at school, in the computing laboratories. About 22% of the students will abandon the school before finishing it; from the rest, more than 90% is eager to become part of the work force in assembly factories, in case they might find a position. In addition, the huge unemployment in this area and their lack of experience make worst their future. The contrast with El Paso, TX, neighbor city to Juarez, is colossal. In addition, only a very few of my students (less than 2%) have a Tourist Visa; the others are more interested in surviving than in becoming tourists: all they want is to learn and survive, or learn how to survive in this very high risk environment.
Why must my students be clever in web skills? First of all, I, as their teacher, their guide, must be skilful. Then, share that learning with my students… although, in some cases, I am the one who learns computing skills from them. What I am interested in, committed to, is to show how they may take full advantage of their time at school, master each of the skills they learn, and continue studying by themselves in the laboratories or in the café internet sites. They have to learn and to decide by themselves, improve their self-learning skills, and be prepared to confront every day of their life, be their own teachers.
Web and ICT skills are what they have to master in order to learn anywhere, anytime they have computing and web access, whatever they decide to be their way of living. And web skills proficiency for learning ESL in this vicinity to USA is a must.
Fernando
Hi Fernando,
ReplyDeleteIt is really a sad situation what you are describing. I didn´t know you were living in such a violent city. Indeed, that´s another external factor that we as teacher have to consider in our plans for teaching. It makes me think about the kind of background our students come from, and it really counts on their learning performance. Violence is a general growing phenomenon here in South America and elsewhere. In this case, you must be a beacon to your students. And it is true, our efforts to enable them to get a better life are critical in our teaching, and I agree that providing them with some expertise or at least to the level of initiation in the use of ICTs will constitute a gateway for their own progress far beyond the school gates. Please, keep your flame alive in favor of the children of Ciudad Juarez!!