Teachers need to embrace the changing technology if we are to motivate students and have them engaged in authentic learning situations. As such, we need to remodel not only the physical structure but the pedagogical elements as we reexamine not just how we teach but how students learn in this digital world.
Kist (2005) identified some characteristics of classrooms which seek to embrace new technology. Some of these are:
- Daily work should be featured in varying forms of representation.
- Teachers adopt instructional strategies such as Think-Aloud in order to model best fit practices.
- Students are actively engaged in constructing their knowledge.
- Students participate in individual as well as collaborative activities.
Therefore, it is imperative that we embrace change if we do not want to share the fate of the dinosaurs which perished because of their inability to embrace change. We cannot afford to be left behind as many of our students are way ahead in the digital world!
I agree with you totally. To be stymied by the current technology is to become trapped in a morass of archaic methods that leave us with the carriage while the horses have bolted. We must equip ourselves to be participate in the digital society of which our classroom is a microcosm. If not we will be on the pathetic end of the continuum, across the digital divide, with our students on the the other end. Are flesh and blood teachers becoming obsolete?
ReplyDeleteI like the concept of the dinosaurs. They died out because their environment changed radically and they did not. Me, I want to be a raptor, they evolved by taking to the skies and morphed into birds. I will embrace the technology and soar.
One of the things we must not ignore is the fact that technology is here and it is here to stay. We conduct our daily lives in a more efficient manner because of technology. Our commute to and from work has been made easier because of technology. Our kitchens and living rooms use technology. So whether we realize it or not we have already been using technology. What we seek to do is to use it a bit more as well as use the ever evolving form of it. Therefore using technology in education should be embraced and its usefulness reiterated in every content area. Our children have embraced it and are using it whether we like it or not. If we seek to communicate on their level then we must speak their language. In this way we can help them to buy into the education process and become literate through the medium which they so willingly embrace.
ReplyDelete