How to be prophetic and dated at the same time - the message is the same, but even the "cutting edge tech" near the end of the video seems dated. So the same messages keep coming back - teach thinking, teach creativity, teach collaboration - the technology will just be the means or tools.
Does that mean that I have to think, create, collaborate? Do you know a website that has worksheets for that? Just kidding.
It seems like we are jumping past the tests/curricula we have. I have already chosen to ignore the Geography standards. Next year we will ignore the map's legend and go right to the tools of Google Earth. Yes, Linda, this is a reference to " the world is flat".
I remember finding a website on my classroom computer in the '90s that showed the contents of a library in China. It blew me away! My generation still thought of Asia as a very far away place. Now I could "be" there and in NH at the same time. Who knew the Jetsons would be here so soon. I always thought of modern times being half way between the Flintstones and the Jetsons.
So, I order our book from Amazon and, a couple days later, I open the package, smirking. I should have gotten this book on our kindle - there was something weird about reading about the latest in education tech in an old-fashioned book.
Chapter 1 has great ideas - really revolutionary and valuable. But John Stossel and my own experience make me believe we need big changes in the way education is viewed in our country and who controls the money and the message. But do we have the will to change?
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life,son."I feel like Rome is burning, and we won't even stand up to fiddle.
I hear you loud and clear. It is not necessarily the technology that will make our students smarter. The use of technology must come with well prepared, pedagogically sound lessons that have a need for the technology. I have a workbook that is called - "Worksheets do not create dendrites"! The times are a changin' and we are not changin' fast enough. It is so frustrating to me as a technology teacher, and a change agent (as I like to think of myself at times)!! I have to breathe and think I can just do the best I can with what I have and it is all for the sake of the kids. I hope we can, as a nation in education, begin to respond to the urgency.
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