There. I said it. And out of most of the teachers in my school, I may be the person who knows it best. After all, I went through my degree in journalism being told every day: no one under the age of 30 reads a newspaper anymore. Then I went through my degree in English with professors stoically ignoring the newfangled e-Readers, until I arrived at my final Capstone course and discovered that I needed to create a multi-media non-fiction narrative piece for the digital age, because "in 12 years, book publishers will be publishing 50% of their content online exclusively."
Of course these changes in print publishing and media are going to change the way that we approach education, and I can see the shifts already happening. For example, at least 12 teachers at my school went to Google Apps training and now have websites that they use for their classes. Already we use the GoogleApps programming to keep track of office detentions, OEYP hours, and ISS assignments. The internet has allowed me to network with other teachers, find helpful study guides and additional training materials, as well as find pertinent news articles to share with the kiddos.
These examples are similar to the ones discussed in the article, and I would love to be able to utilize these ideas more. I think that in most of my classes, I'm going to have to work hard to turn my students into "digital learners."
One obstacle that I face as an ESL teacher in Mesquite is the complete lack of funding from any real source or entity to actually bring technology into my classroom. Next year, I'll be getting newer computers because of my latest assignment (Yearbook), but this year was a real struggle to integrate any sort of technology into my lesson plans. Also, at least 80% of my students qualify as economically disadvantaged and about 50% of the students in my ESL classes do not have regular access to a computer after school hours. These students need additional help to understand how to use programs. I see part of my duty as helping them to adapt to the US culture, and the digital culture is certainly a large portion of that now.
The future of my technology use, you ask?
- have all of my students on a GoogleApps account so that they can collaborate on projects in slides, or, as in the article, on a study guide for an upcoming test
- activity websites to keep the students and parents involved with Student Council and Yearbook updated on the important upcoming events
- advertising and incentives for Yearbook marketing
- podcasts and online content for my true Newcomer ESL students who would be lost in normal lessons
I agree with you about how the world is changing with the ever expanding world of technology. I'm not looking forward to the days of electronic readers myself, because I like a book in my hands. And there is no battery to worry about charging or dieing as you are reading a story.
ReplyDeleteI am also with you on the whole not enough funding for technology in the schools. I teach instrumental music at MHS and I want all kinds of wonderful little technology gadgets that I can use to get certain concepts across to the kids much easier and less time consuming.
It is also sad how we are needing kids to work and learn with the new technology but that they are unable to do so because they don't have access to any at home. Sort of leads to a little self esteem issue I would imagine.
All in all I liked you ideas.