Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Thing #2
All three videos and the article ooze the kind of learning environment I would love to be a part of right now. The statistics in the videos were jolting and sometimes disheartening because I know too many teachers that just do not "get it." If we are going to live in a Web 2.0 world, it will have to be when all the kids that grew up with their multiple hours of Internet, graduate from college and begin teaching. Some of the "seasoned" educators are afraid of Web 2.0. They believe they are too old to learn and apply the tools. Part of it might also be that they do not anticipate teaching long enough for it to matter (I'm sure retirement is the light at the end of a very long tunnel for a lot of them). The problem is they need to realize that it matters RIGHT NOW. Even if they picked up a couple of Web 2.0 tools, like blogging or podcasting, they would be benefiting their students in a more effective way. Not to mention, they would save themselves a lot of extra work and paper copies. Desperately I hope to instigate some of this change. David Warlick's article can be a reality if we are willing to go that distance and educate ourselves about all that is out there.
I think you comments are right on. I am in the in-between young and retirement group, and I too get comfortable with some of the things in my toolbox. I hope that everyone gets on board with at least some of the new technology. What a difference we could all make together! Great post. I'd add a smilely, but I'm not sure how yet. My new blog is chargercougar.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like a digital native yourself! Can't wait to read more from you.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you are willing to become a change agent and try to make learning on your campus relevant to the students.
ReplyDeleteYou are right - we can't sit back and wait for younger teachers to take over. It's not fair to the kids we have now.