Skip to main content

Priorities

Ask any teacher what they are up to these days and you'd better pull up a chair and bring a snack. There are many new things happening in our schools and teachers are being asked to make many changes to they way they teach. Each change requires time: time to learn, time to apply your learning, time to collaborate and develop new curriculum.

So when I speak to teachers about technology and 21st century learning, I am often greeted with a glazed over look that says, "I don't have time for one more thing." That's not to say that many teachers aren't doing wonderful things with technology. They are. But we could be doing much more. The key is figuring out what are the most important changes that need to take place. This is no easy task. Take the following initiatives:

Data and Assessment
Cultural Proficiency
Technology Integration
Literacy (This includes multiple concepts like Daily 5, Reader's Workshop, Big 6, etc...)
Brain-Based Research
The list goes on...

How do you pick one over another? All are backed up by some sort of research. Some claim to improve test scores.

For me, it comes down to this. Imagine your students as adults. Imagine the world as it will be then (Good luck!) What will make the difference for them? What will make them successful? Healthy? Functional? Happy?

The answer is all of them: But knowing how to access information(in all its forms) and communicating effectively (in all ITS forms) will undoubtedly be important. Knowing how to be safe in an online world will become increasingly important. Knowing how to work with and live alongside people from around the world will be increasingly important. It is hard to imagine how we will do these things without a strong understanding of technology.

How do we infuse technology into our cultural proficiency program? Literacy program? All programs?

Comments

  1. Shandra FleishmanMarch 19, 2010 at 3:40 PM

    Great post, I bet a lot of work and research went into this article.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching for Tomorrow Part 1

A group of teachers are reading Teaching for Tomorrow by Ted McCain as a summer book group. As we read we will be sharing (I hope!) our ideas about the book. If you are not part of our summer book group, feel free to join in the discussion. All ideas are welcome! If you have any thoughts about Section 1: What Skills Will Students Need for the 21st Century?, please leave a comment on this post. Hopefully this will lead to a discussion on this topic. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
3 comments
Read more

Metamorphosis revisited

I posted before about metamorphosing in an evolving world. I want to revisit this idea. It has been bothering me that change seems to come so slow. There are many reasons for this, including leadership, state testing, resistance to change, resources, etc... But despite all of these factors, I truly believe that we can bring about more significant change. I'm not talking about technology, so much as I am talking about rethinking what we teach. While I see many teachers evolving (including myself), I think we are too painfully slow for the kinds of changes that need to take place. Photo by Morti Riuuallon http://www.flickr.com/photos/ultimorollo/2520525316/ The best way for us to metamorphose is to follow the example of the butterfly. The caterpillar starts by eating constantly. We, as teachers, need to consume information as if our future depended upon it. It does. We are becoming obsolete and our only chance of remaining relevant into the future is to understand it and adapt to i
3 comments
Read more

The Wonderful World of Updates

As a SmartBoard district, we have many teachers using SmartBoards, Airliners, and, of course, Notebook software. So as a Notebook user, I am very excited about the new version 10 that has recently been released. It has many great new features which I will be sharing in later posts. However, as the primary trainer for users of Notebook software, this transition raises many questions about the value of updates. Many of our users are new to Smart Notebook software. I have trained about 100 people this year alone. Now I need to go back to them and tell them that this great tool I showed them is about to look quite different. To a third of them, this will be welcome news. They want the updates. They want the new features. They will pick it up quickly. To a second third, this will raise trepidation. Just when they are getting the hang of it, they go and change it. They will require a fair amount of support to bring them up to the same level of comfort with the new version. That leaves the re
2 comments
Read more