Collaborative Learning in the High School Setting

This is such a taboo subject in my district. If I'm lying, I am flying, but there is very little collaborative learning or sharing in my district. The only time when we collaborate is at grade level meetings and staff meetings. We very seldom use technology or learning environments to collaborate techniques, lessons, ahh ha moments, on-line. I think when you collaborate online, it opens up just that much more space for sharing. For instance, most schools are gearing up for the Michigan Merit Exam. It is a state test that is published in the news papers (results). Funding is apart of this as well. If we see that we are making way with a lesson or our students are really reaping the benefits from a concept covered, we wait till the staff meeting to discuss it. In the case of my district, we have whats called Big Picture On-Line. There we are linked with other schools across the United States. When you look at the information in the Knowledge Exchange, its over 4 years old. Our district rarely uses it and the others do not participate with it much either. I would like to see a change in the way instructors communicate. I think we would be able to share so much more if we utilized the tools we have more. I think a few reasons that instructors may not use it like they should is lack of training. Most schools throw programs at you, but don't properly train teachers. In addition to that, they don't assess much to see how its going. Some people are just down right scared of using technology. That's another topic in itself. I think all teacher and instructors need to get over their fears and use at a exchange of ideas. It should be used as a way of collaborating. So many learning environments have it as a feature. So I think at my next staff meeting, I will bring up staff using technology to collaborate more.