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September 27, 2007 12:03 PM
Table Discussion from Back
What do we think it means to prepare students for the 21st century? What skills do students need to survive and thrive in this new era?
We can't teach children nuggets of information, we need to be teaching them how to find information.
The problems that we have are motivational in nature. We ignore that children are collaborating and using technology tools. We block the very things that are a part of their life. We don't provide them with learning environments that give them the opportunities that they use all the time in their "real" lives.
Our mindset of teaching needs to change so that we become facilitators of information rather than the imparters of information. They need to have the opportunity to learn from each other. Educators tend to be scared of change. Our students embrace change.
Change is difficult for those who did not grow up with all of the technological resources. It is hard to pick up all the new technologies when we have so many other things to do. We tend to be resistant to change. New staff who have grown up with technology are closer to students and their needs.
Sometimes we just as educators need to get out of our students way. We have to get away from telling to helping them become classroom facilitators. We need to let our students help us learn what will create effective learning environments for them.
It is easy to pick out the symptoms of our problems, but the answers to how to meet the needs of our teachers is a very much bigger problem. The system on a larger scale (ODE) needs to provide more flexibility into the training of our teachers. Teachers have a requirement that they will integrate technology, but many do not know that this requirement exists. They would probably run screaming if they new what the expectations are.
Is there a Myspace issue or is it a general social networking problem. Do we need to block or do we need to teach students how to use these tools appropriately. Students don't have judgement...we need to teach them how to develop the skills to use these tools in the correct way. They do it without understanding the consequences of using them incorrectly (firing, not getting hired, losing scholarships). We need to help them develop these skills.
Posted by pamleland on September 27, 2007 at 12:03 PM in General | Comments (0)
