Digital Kids. Analog Schools.

I’m getting tired of hearing people continue to ask for the evidence that technology helps students learn. It doesn’t matter. We know that good teachers help students learn. We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world.
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/05/22/curriculum-is-dead/


It frustrates me when I hear about school districts denying student's access to awesome technology, such as the Google apps, because of the risk of a few students being "off task" during the activity.  To me, these are the tools and resources of our future, where better a place than in the schools to learn to use them responsibly and appropriately?


I'm surprised to realize how progressive the small, middle-income community (a population of approximately 11,000-12,000 people) in which I live is in terms of technology in education and how lucky the children attending the public schools here truly are!  For many years Sturgis Public Schools has had a technology curriculum in place.  Sturgis Public Schools has numerous, up-to-date computers and software in every elementary classroom with access to high-speed Internet for student use, numerous iPad's and iPods for student use in each of the schools, Smartboards and Elmo projectors in most, if not all, classrooms, and they utilize cell phones for polling of students and other various activities- they've truly embraced that these tools are the way of the future for students.   They do not block Google on student computers, in fact they've embraced the Google apps and Internet as important tools in student learning.


I'm extremely proud of my community for their belief in the value of technology in education and the impact it will have in preparing our children for the future.  As the author of this quote suggests, Sturgis Public Schools has truly placed, and continues to place, new, relevant technology in every classroom and the hands of every teacher and student in this community.




While we teach whatever we teach at school, the kids go home and learn the skills they need to survive and prosper in an interconnected global economy.

Incrementally changing our teaching methods, slowly bringing people up to speed . . . worked fine when ideas of literacy and education were not rapidly changing; but they are. We need to be able to leapfrog in our understandings, in our methods, and in our tools, allowing us to move to where the kids are. If we do not become leaders to our students, we will  be followers, seen as irrelevant, and left to cry in our books while the kids are off setting the agenda.  

http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2005/11/educational_lea.html


I think it is imperative teachers be given ample opportunities to access a wide-variety of professional development opportunities for learning new ways to become familiar with and incorporate new technology into their teaching to help engage students in meaningful learning.


To me, one of the greatest things about the use of technology in education is how it allows students to truly learn- technology allows students the ability to access an infinite amount of information.  As opposed to being "taught" information directly, students today have the ability to seek the information quickly and efficiently and learn in new, meaningful ways.


I believe it is imperative that teachers embrace new technology and adapt their teaching style to incorporate it into their classrooms to help students truly learn how to learn- one of the greatest gifts a teacher can give a student.