Wow! It is amazing the things that we know, but need to see them over and over to fully realize that they are right under our noses. My biggest problem, and the reason I took this 2.0 adventure, is that I am not computer literate enough to guide my students through the process of future learning. The part I found most intriguing to me was concerning staff development. The professional development we are receiving is usually a waste of time. We need more access to technology, and new and better ways to teach our students. We spend most of our time worrying about MEAP scores instead of getting the kids ready for the real world.
Sometimes when I think about the changes in education, I feel we have come a long way. Other times it seems we have changed very little. As I mentioned above, I (and many other veteran educators) do not have the techno literacy to allow my students to learn the way that would be best for them. I am not an advocate of too much cooperative learning, because I feel it comes down to cooperative cheating for many of them. I firmly agreed with the need for more leadership oriented learning. I have recently changed my Economics class from just simply Econ to Econ and Leadership. Much of what we do is discussion about the role that character and integrity play in everyday life. As our society is changing from the industrial age to the information age, we need to understand that service oriented jobs take more personality and cooperation to be successful than do industry jobs. Those types of jobs are gone. There is a major shift in types of jobs available in todays changing economy. We need to educate these students to be able to be successful in service industries or teach them that the best way to make money is to learn a trade or become an entrepreneur. Obviously these are not he only jobs available, but let's face it, not all of our students are college bound and/or capable of more advanced type of jobs. Hopefully, in the near future we can have laptops for all of our students and allow them the ability to be more active learners and make them more responsible for their education. It will give them a idea of what life will be like we they get out in the real world and have to make it on their own.
I agree!! Our students do need laptops, otherwise, these "Web 2.0" skills are useless to us. If the students do not have access to the internet, we cannot expect them to blog, skype, twitter, or whatever it may be. I teach in a lab, so it's easy for me, but I see other teachers struggling to incorporate technology because our computer lab is reserved through the rest of the year!! Hopefully one day we'll get there!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Are we getting the students prepared for their future which includes using all of this new technology? If the teachers are clueless how can the students be educated on these things. More technology in-services need to be implemented.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Students need to be prepared for their future which includes all of this technology. How can educators prepare them if they do not know the technology? We need more in-services on the technology that is available to us and the students.
ReplyDeleteStudents' phones are computers, yet most schools ban them. We speak about achieving a 1:1 computer/student ratio, and students are bringing in their own computers (that they or their parents have paid for) but aren't allowed to use them. I know, there are students who would use them inappropriately, but let's not punish everyone for the actions of a few.
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