According to a new survey to be released in the Wednesday, September 3, 2009 New York Times, household across the US are pretty well wired, and mobile technologies have taken over, making us geeks wherever we go. Check out the article, The Race to Be an Early Adopter of Technologies Goes Mainstream, a Survey Finds. If homes are wired and we can expect more mobile technologies, what does this movement and change in our culture imply for the educational setting and schools on the K-12 level? Have schools kept current of societal trends? Where does your own household fall in the survey data? Are you yet a frequent user of mobile technologies, wired wherever you go? If so, how has being wired affected your philosophy of teaching? Does all the technology increase or decrease your comfort level as an educator?image from: http://geeks.pirillo.com
3 comments:
The statement that we live in “exponential times” does not even begin to cover what our world and students will need to understand. As a fifth year teacher I have come to the conclusion that education is reactionary and rarely proactive. This article discusses how the American home is adopting tech, however longer planning and implementation of ICT by professional educators is clearly playing catch-up.
In addition to Bob's comment, I feel that one thing that makes a teacher truely expetional is his or her ability to proactive instead of reactive. Being reactive is giving the students something they are used to, where as being proactive gives the students something they have never seen before. Technology helps us do this in the classroom. The more proactive with technology that we are, the better and more interesting we will be for our students. So let's not just keep up, let's invent!
From the article, "The study also suggests a growing reliance on the Internet for commerce, communication, entertainment and social lives". Yes, I agree but there is also the movement to rely on the Internet for mundane tasks (filling out forms, job applications, for example). I think of my mom who was a clerk typist in a bank for much of her life. She would not be able to survive much less thrive in today's technological world. I may have many students without access to technology, without the drive to learn. They need to be successful with technology to survive as well as thrive. The best way I know to achieve this is to show children how to not be afraid to teach themselves something on their own. That is how many of us learn and adapt new technologies. There may be no budget and we may be reactionary, but we need give students the skills to attack the unknown, not be afraid and learn for themselves.
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