I guess you can say I'm a pretty avid blogger. I have been posting in a LiveJournal for the last five years, and I occasioanlly post on my MySpace. But I've never been asked to create a blog for a class, so this is pretty interesting for me.
It amazes the direction that education is taking when it comes to technology. We as future educators are encouraged to use technology more and more in the calssroom. I recently read this article about a teacher who created a MySpace for her class. I think that is humorous because of the controversy over internet personalities during my student teaching experience. Teachers were losing their jobs because employers found old photos of the teachers displaying inappropriate and unprofessional behaviors (ie drinking, partying, sex). I think it's a little hypocritical to ask us as new teachers to completely abandon our internet personalities at this point in our lives.
Our generation was the first use things like MySpace, Facebook, and many other internet personality sites. The kids that use them today are just better at using them. While hundreds of children and young adults access sites like these for the first time every day, they are constantly getting the updated versions of things we've used for years in the same exact way they were we started. Everything for new users is a fresh start, so they become experts before many of us even understand what the changes are. We must learn about and adapt to these changes as we continue to find our places in the world, personally and professionally.
Why is it so difficult for the powers that be to understand these things about technology. If more technology was used in the classroom, teachers and students can learn from each other, and help each other understand the daily changes occuring in the technology world. The old fogies running the show in education are so afraid of technology because of all the "dangers" out there, that they forget that precautions can be taken to embrace the technology world and learn from everything out there. They refuse to ignore the oodles of research that is out there proving that technology in the calssroom works. Those that have taken the risk have proven that technology in the classroom has improved student learning.
It won't be until our generation is finally running things that antyhing really changes. We know what kind of effect technology has on students. People wonder why our kids know more than we do, and this is the exact reason why. We hinder our own learning by squashing the idea that things can work if we just give them the chance. The pattern that has been created willcontinue to remain unless someone is willing to stand up and say, this could work, we should try it. With more and more changes occuring every day, what choice do we have but to step up and take the risk. If we don't, we're only going to screw ourselves. One day, our students will be teaching us more than we could ever teach them.
Maybe this is just an average blog... the rantings of an average internet user that exists out in cyberspace, that only a few will see. Or maybe, I have a point.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment