As a digital immigrant, technology has often been challenging for me. Most digital immigrants are proficient with Web 1.0 tools, such as finding information, writing papers, and sending e-mails. It’s Web 2.0 that is bringing me into the 21st Century kicking and screaming like a newborn baby! The digital natives in our classrooms live with technology and its tools are second nature: Web 2.0 skills have become an action verb that digital natives do. Today’s students need twenty-first century skills in preparation for a future of unimaginable opportunities.
Today technology is growing
exponentially compared to what the previous two generations experienced. The average age of today’s teacher is 42.5
years old, this means it may be harder for the ‘average’ public school teacher
to embrace and implement the technological skills needed for students to be
globally competitive.
According to Gwen Solomon and
Lynne Schrum, authors of web 2.0 new tools, new schools, the most important
skill for the future is adaptability. For
teachers this means being willing to learn and implement the digital tools students
already use outside the classroom and integrate these tools into daily
lessons inside the classroom. But it doesn’t stop there – as technology
continues to change and evolve, teachers will also have to be flexible enough
to learn newer tools and address the next set of challenges. Whew!
Four days ago my first granddaughter, Lillian, was born. She and I share the same birthday but 52 years apart. Fifty years is a long time. I could not have imagined the advances in technology
I have experienced in my lifetime. I’ve
shared her pictures on Facebook with friends across the country and around the
world and with her 100 year old Great Great Grandmother on e-mail. It’s exciting to think what this world is
coming to and how technology and social media can transform our classrooms!
I agree with teachers needing to be flexible to keep up the changes in technology but it goes further than that. Our whole school system is not set up for quick changes. Purchasing a new laptop requires putting it in your budget for the following year, justifying the need for a new laptop, getting it approved by the principal, SAU and town voters and then the following year filling a PO and submitting it and waiting for approval, well you get the picture. Training teachers requires just as much planning. By the time all of that is complete a new technology is on the market.
ReplyDeleteZach: There are lots of teachers where I work who would prefer to operate under the assumption that technology has no place in THEIR classroom primarily because they've never used it so their logic would seem to be "if I got by fine without it, why should my students be any different." The answer, in my mind, is that even MY generation (I'm 23) grew up in a world where technology is all around us.
ReplyDeleteAlso: I agree with Cherie's statement about change being a relatively slow process around schools and I would like to put forth ANOTHER factor into why the process is slow. Emotions. I upgraded my PC to Windows 7 the day it was released. I was over the edge with excitement waiting for my copy to arrive. Win8, however, I'm petrified of. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about it waiting to get a copy and install it on a Virtual Machine, but so far, I'm not liking what I see because it's so different. Slowly, I'm sure, I'll become used to it but for now, yeesh.
Yes, I agree, technology is such a slowly adopted process within schools. It is so important for teachers to prepare their students for the tests and making sure they are ready for common core standards, the technology part sometimes falls to the side. It is each teacher's responsibility to try to bring some technology into their classroom, no matter how small they start. We all have NETS-ISTE standards that all teachers are supposed to be following, but they are not monitored. So with this class, I am happy to say, I will help you to build up your technology savvy and feel more comfortable using it with your students. I know at times it is scary and daunting, but with a little time and patience, and of course trying it on your own, without my help (yes, I know I am mean!), you will be a pro! Excited to learn with you!
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