Time. . .

As I am writing this I am appalled at it being over 2 weeks since my last blog. The reason why is that I am fighting with the powers that be over the direction of technology and the future of it in the classroom. We have too many people that say they are not going to use it, they are not going to need it that they don't want it in their classroom. I don't understand how they can use the argument. I have read the articles that the internet is making us dumber. I have talked to many educators that say that they don't have the time. How can we expect to change things unless we take a hard look at our educational system and our curriculum and look to change it. We have to take the time or else we are going to find that the children that we teach will be without the skills required to survive in the real world.
The real world is that world that has technology. The real world is the one that uses it everyday. Workers are not spoon-fed information, they have to figure it out and be able to use technology effectively. Yet we don't encourage it in our classrooms.

Technology for School

Did some reading last night and I am appalled at some schools thinking that by just putting in a smartboard, they are teaching using 21st century methods. A great article by Wesley Fryer when he is Twittering about his meet the teacher night.

We can not use technology and make it fit into our lesson, nor should we just make the lesson to fit technology. As Jeff Allen said technology is an amplifier. That statement really made me think because I have seen so many teachers (myself included) use technology to provide a wow factor. I thought that because I used a projector to put up my lesson of the day or use a smartboard to write my notes on the board (a pretty expensive whiteboard) I was doing it, I was using web 2.0 tools, I was teaching them how to use technology. I just didn't get it. Teaching for the 21st century is not the teacher standing in front of the class using the gadgets and wowing the students. I believe that it is about having the students take charge of their learning and having them become in many ways the teacher. Which is frightening for teachers.

What do we teach kids?

I am pondering getting ready for school and am having to take a hard look at my teaching methods. When I was a student, the way I was taught was here is a 100 questions memorize how to do them for the test at the end of the week. When I was in college it was more memorization and "borrowing" of information for my papers. When I became a teacher I was truly lost in what I was going to do. What was going to be my methods of teaching? Most people when they are threatened go to old habits or routines that they are comfortable with. That is what I did. I taught using the methods that I had been taught.

That might have worked 10 years ago but does not work well now in the 21st century!

I attended a conference last week in Calgary, Alberta and was privledged to listen to some fabulous keynotes (and some not so great ones). It made me take a hard look at what I am doing as an educator. One of the best keynotes that I heard that weekend was Ewan Macintosh who has an interesting site http://www.edu.blogs.com/.

Educators out there take a look at how you teach. If you are/were like me you spent the majority of the time lecturing (teaching students to be quiet and listen). Then we give them an assignment (individual) and if they are not done in class it is for homework.

Looking at past assignments that I have given them many of them are meaningless and trivial.
Abeit not as bad as these ones that were submitted to Dangerously Irrevalent.

This is going to be a continuing saga with me as I try to change the way I teach and more importantly the way students learn. Time will tell. . .