Where Do We Go from Here?

So another school year has begun.

And how do we do this school thing? Do we do what we’ve always done before?

If we teach today’s students the way we we’ve always taught, or the way we were taught, we do them an injustice.

They live in a world of text messaging and instant messaging, of iPods and iTunes, of MySpace and Facebook . . . and we take them out of their digital world, give them worksheets and handouts, and make them do school.

How do we meet them where they live, or at least get within a few streets of their neighborhood?

In my years as a Computer Resource Specialist, I’ve been told by many, many teachers, “I don’t do this computer stuff well.” How many times have we taught people who didn’t do math well, or didn’t do writing well, or didn’t do exercise well? But if we’re serious about teaching, we challenge them to go beyond what they’ve done before, to learn, to be confident, to use their new skills.

Therefore, I challenge you--especially those of you who would rather have someone “do computers” for you instead of trusting yourself to learn--to go beyond what you’ve done before, to learn new computer skills, to explore Web 2.0 technologies, to see how you can use your new knowledge to integrate technology in order to meet your students where they live, to show them that what they learn in school is what they need in life.

You may want to start with something as simple as posting your assignments on Sharepoint, or having your students submit their assignments there, or go beyond that and create discussions and surveys for them. Or maybe you want to try blogging with your students, creating your own site or a class wiki, or even podcasting (yes, you could be in iTunes).

You could tie your children’s shoes for them for the rest of their lives, but wouldn’t that look silly when they’re 35 years old? So let me you help learn to tie your own technology shoes (okay, that doesn’t really make sense, but you know what I mean), and together, let’s move in a new direction with technology integration and inspire our students to learn authentic, lifelong lessons.

(Here’s a start: ten ways to use a blog with your students).