April 8, 2008~ Being a quiet day, I was able to catch up on some of my personal professional development. Having stopped by Craig Nansen's Ustream of their state technology leader's meeting with Dr. Richard Van Eck, UND Pedagogy for the New Millennium and Steve Dembo's UStream, thoughts started floating in my head. One of the speakers mentioned the question of what is technology and how different generations view different things. My grandparents thought the radio was technology, my parents thought the color television was technology and I grew up thinking CD's were technology. The American Heritage Science Dictionary defines technology as "The use of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems". So with the advent of generational changes radio, television, CD's, ipods, Web 2.O why is it taking so long for our teaching practices to change. To quote an audience member in Steve Dembo's UStream this morning, "you wouldn't want to go to a doctor today that is still practicing medicine the same way he did 20 years ago, then why would you let your child's teacher teach the same way teachers taught 20 years ago?"
As a technology coach, I have actually heard most of the excuses for not using technology in the classroom. We have all heard it..classroom management issues, technology networking issues, Internet safety issues and the list goes on and on...But I am here to tell you...the good of the technology so tremendously outweighs the "issues". Let me help you deal with those issues..I promise it will make your teaching life a lot better in the long run..ok..so we will hit a few road blocks along the way but isn't that what teaching and learning is all about? So for me technology is anything that helps me do my job better and that job is helping the teachers help the students succeed. So..if it includes You Tube, Instant Messaging or Webcams..come on tech department..open up those filter gates!!
Attribution:
Image: Technology Then & Now
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdickert/305722372/
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