After almost 10 years of being an educator and having coasted through the first course in my master's program, I know now more than ever how important it is to bring educators more up to speed with the ever-growing technology in this world. It is painfully obvious that the world around us is moving faster than what the education system is able to provide us with. "For today's educator to claim ignorance of technology's capacity for assisting learning should strike us the same way we feel about a teacher from the 1960's who said he/she didn't know how to read" (Thornburg, 2004).
To expedite the process of bringing educators up to date with technology, there must be more emphasis from all angles on education wherever possibe and immediately. It must come from the government, from donations, and wherever possible parents must grab hold of oportunities afforded them and integrate technology in their homes. This will have a direct and powerful effect on how quickly the student can adapt to technology in the classroom.
Educators affording themselves with technology at home when not as available through their school is another way to kickstart this integration.
78% of America's teens have internet access, and over 25% of them have broadband (Thornburg, 2004). While this number is greater than ever before, the world still revolves around our ability to communicate and the faster and more efficiently we can communicate, educate and do business, the bettter chance America has to maintain as a world leader. Again, this starts with students, and the younger the better. The fastest growing age group for using the Internet is 2 - to 5-year-olds (NetDay News, 2005).
Educators MUST keep up with the tech world around us in order to be able to do our jobs properly. Educators must be provided with adequate professional development opportunities to give us the skills both in technology use, and in the ways these tools can be utilized or implemented in the context of the curriculum and modern pedagogy.
References:
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401).
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Hi Joy,
ReplyDeleteI really like you ideas of using peer interaction for commenting and editing student work. However, would their be some students that would be reluctant to share their work, not only with the entire class, but also other members of our community, and any other visitors to the blog. Some students may not have the confidence to not have the academic confidence to put it up in front of too many people. To accommodate those students, I feel giving them user names giving them anonymity would give them the security of they would need to share their work. Hopefully of time, they would overcome their inadequacy through the improvement they would gain from their blogging experience.
Rob thank you. Those are great, valid points! I love the idea of anonymity for the user names for the students. It made me think even further. They could start off with anonymity for the first part of the course and perhaps evolve or graduate to a level later in their course where they are required to use their real names. In the beginning they will feel comfy knowing that no one will know who they are. But knowing they have to better themselves throughout the course because their anonymity will be lifted will give them the incentive they need to improve. Thanks so much for the fuel!
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