Being a rabid bibliophile, not only do I read regular old books with veracity, but my Kindle is surgically attached to my hand, and the back of cereal boxes hold great appeal as well! Imagine my delight when I boarded a Southwest plane on August 2, to find the NEW issue of Spirit magazine was in the seat pocket (I love their magazine). Further stretching your potential incredulity, imagine my reaction to read the title of the cover story - "NEW SCHOOL: How the digital revolution is turning learning upside down!"
The "experts" are saying that learners prefer smaller bites of information, and "just in time" learning. They predict social media and digital devices are the way of the future. Apparently traditional educators agree as well. While discussing the flipped classroom, the author (Jennifer Miller) discussed how middle and high school teachers are taking advantage of students' love of texting and using other electronic devices. One educator successfully campaigned to get the school system's ban on cellphones overturned, and every student in the school district (starting with kindergarten) has a Google account in which to store their work. Students take photos of their work (such as drawing the molecular structure of a chemical ON their lab table) and file in their Google account. Students also tweet about their work ("it has to be tweet worthy" says one science teacher). I especially liked the conclusion of this article. The author questioned "If a vast universe of information is readily available in cyberspace, what use is today's teacher to students." Science teacher Seigel wasted no time in replying - "To teach them to think." Whew, my job is safe for now!
As if this weren't exciting enough, yesterday I received my Family Circle magazine - yes, I know, a seriously "Mom" mag. It gets worse - being the September issue it was chock-full of "back to school" articles. I laughed out loud when I saw one prominent article titled "Yes, there's an app for that!" The article started right out acknowledging the need to purchase notebooks, printer paper and erasable pens, but went on to say "only ingenious moms know which apps can turn a tablet or smartphone into a bona fide educational tool." Quoting the fact that in May of this year, iTunes notched its 50 billionth app download, the article described 21 apps that would assist learners. Of course, I was gratified to see Evernote featured as an organizational tool!
So, from experts in training and development, down to Moms getting the kiddies ready to go back to school, technology is playing a huge role in education (and entertainment - let's not forget Candy Crush - can ANYONE help me with level 65?). I'll see you on the internet.
Looks like we are in the right position for the future, yes? I love that your example of the grade school teacher was willing to teach "where the students are." Unfortunately, there is still so much fear of technology and mis-use that many are not embracing it, thereby missing out on so many opportunities for growth.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post!