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The Fischbowl: Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate ...

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You need to demonstrate continual learning, lifelong learning – for your students, or you will continue to teach your students how to be successful in an age that no longer exists.

Highlighted by marshall123

In order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves? You need to experience this, you need to explore right along with your students. > You need to experience the tools they’ll be using in the 21st century, developing your own networks in parallel with your students. You need to demonstrate continual learning, lifelong learning – for your students, or you will continue to teach your students how to be successful in an age that no longer exists. >

Highlighted by marshall123

I was a math teacher. In about 80% of the parent conferences I had with students who were struggling, at least one of the parents would say "I was never any good at math either." While I don't doubt the truth of the statement, it was the fact that they said it and almost seemed proud of it that bothered me (and of course the message it sent to their student). I can't imagine a parent saying "Oh, yeah, I never learned how to read" and being proud of it. It seemed like there was a different standard for math - not knowing math was socially acceptable, not knowing how to read was very unacceptable.

Highlighted by marshall123

You need to experience this, you need to explore right along with your students.

Highlighted by marshall123

And let me be clear, I'm not saying that technology is the end all and be all of education. As I think I've always tried to say, it's just a tool to help us teach and learn and grow - but an indispensable tool.

Highlighted by marshall123

please read the comments as well - that's where most (all?) of the good stuff is.

Highlighted by chartzell

Do not read the rest of this (especially if you’re on my staff) unless you’re in the mood to be provoked.

Highlighted by chartzell

We should finally drop the myth of digital natives and digital immigrants.

Highlighted by chartzell

I don't go for all this digital natives and immigrants stuff

Highlighted by arllennium

The phrase may have been useful to start with, but it's been over-used for a long time now. In any case, after immigrants have been in a country for a while, they become natives. We've had personal computers for 30 years, and I was using computers in my teaching back in 1975. How long does it take for someone to wake up to the fact that technology is part of life, not an add-on?

Highlighted by arllennium

students

Highlighted by arllennium

"Oh, yeah, I never learned how to read" and being proud of it. It seemed like there was a differen

Highlighted by msmunroe

t's just a tool to help us teach and learn and grow - but an indispensable tool. Technology is the underpinning of just about everything we do today - and especially so in relation to how we communicate with each other.

Highlighted by msmunroe

If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write.

Highlighted by msmunroe

I think of our students, and the fact that they don't much care how much is on our plates. As I've said before, this is the only four years these students will have at our high school - they can't wait for us to figure it out.

Highlighted by msmunroe

In the early 20th century, people who couldn’t read or write could be pretty successful. By the middle of the 20th century, that was still true, but it was getting harder to be successful (and certainly those that could read and write had much more opportunities available to them). By the end of the 20th century, there was very little chance of being successful if you couldn’t read or write.

Highlighted by msmunroe

can't wait for us to figure it out.

Highlighted by arllennium

And – since we’re living in exponential times – I think the timeline compared to the 20th century is very much compressed. In the late 1990’s (I know, still 20th century, but go with it), you could be successful if you were technology illiterate.

Highlighted by msmunroe

(Don’t forget, those Kindergartners that started school in the last month or so are the Class of 2020 – we need that 2020 Vision.)

Highlighted by msmunroe

How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves? You need to experience this, you need to explore right along with your students. You need to experience the tools they’ll be using in the 21st century, developing your own networks in parallel with your students. You need to demonstrate continual learning, lifelong learning – for your students, or you will continue to teach your students how to be successful in an age that no longer exists.

Highlighted by msmunroe

In order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves?

Highlighted by arllennium

In order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves? You need to experience this, you need to explore right along with your students. You need to experience the tools they’ll be using in the 21st century, developing your own networks in parallel with your students. You need to demonstrate continual learning, lifelong learning – for your students, or you will continue to teach your students how to be successful in an age that no longer exists.

Highlighted by chartzell

I fear that too many educators think that using power point to deliver instruction everyday is enough to pass as literate.

Highlighted by chartzell

Pen-and-paper assignments and group discussion can still get the job done.

Highlighted by chartzell

If the “language arts” are all about communication, we aren’t really teaching students to communicate if we ignore the connected electronic world of today.

Highlighted by chartzell

I have 5th-12th grade students that are the first line of tech support. They help manage class websites, troubleshoot problems and are more readily available for staff.

Highlighted by chartzell

In our college we have a policy of ownership. Teachers have complete control of their laptops and we support any issues they have regardless of whether they seem related to school. If a math teacher gets comfortable with his computer through organising and editing his photograph collection, he is more likely to adopt work related computer skills.

Highlighted by chartzell

Literature is something you can read over and over and find something new every time.

Highlighted by chartzell

You can read blogs and rss feeds all day and never read any literature.

Highlighted by chartzell

We keep hoping that teachers will one day wake up and bring technology into their classroom. Or we take them out of their classroom, show them cool stuff and hope that they "get it". Then they go back to their classroom alone and try to change things by themselves. It won't happen this way.

Highlighted by chartzell

And, just because it’s the best way for you, because it resonates and touches you, does that mean it’s the best way for your students?

Highlighted by chartzell

the book is simply an earlier piece of technology, one that was incredibly disruptive – and hated – in that earlier time.

Highlighted by chartzell

As far as whether literature can exist in a text message, that makes me think of a story I heard attributed to Hemingway. In response to a contest to write a story in exactly six words he wrote, “For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never used.” Perhaps there’s an idea for an assignment utilizing texting for you . . .

Highlighted by chartzell

In fact, as technologically savvy as students are today, I think some of us (in educational parlance) have gone from being the “sage on the stage” to “the guide on the side” to “the hack in the back.” We can’t afford to be near the back of the herd. The cheetahs will get us.

Highlighted by chartzell

I became a teacher because I love books. I have continued to teach for over 30 years because I love young people. I believe a teacher must have passion for a subject. Karl is passionate about technology. I am passionate about the words and ideas my students and I discover in books.

Karl, I am eager to read the great writers who are currently appearing on blogs and MySpace. Would you direct me to their URL's? Show me the new text-messaging Dostoyevsky, please.

Highlighted by chartzell

While I know how much you love books, my hope would be that you love young people more. And that what you want those young people to have is the ideas contained in those books, not so much the physical books themselves.

Highlighted by chartzell

We don’t care so much if students can spit back the important characters and plot lines of Macbeth, but rather whether they delve deeply into the meaning and truths contained in the story and relate it to their own lives and experiences.

Highlighted by chartzell

you need to be developing these Personal Learning Networks together - nobody can simply point you to them. They are personal, and personally meaningful, and ever-changing, and it’s going to take persistence and hard work to develop and maintain them.

Highlighted by chartzell

Who decides what has artistic value and is therefore considered literature?

Highlighted by chartzell

on 2008-10-03 by chartzell

and since this blog was recognized with an award, does that make it literature?

Criticizing teachers for being fearful of technology is analogous to criticizing a teenage student who can’t read and is unwilling to try; an accusatory approach in either situation is likely to end in self doubt, resentment, and ultimately, rejection.

Highlighted by chartzell

on 2008-10-03 by chartzell

What is the best approach?

Sarcasm is the protest of people who are weak." Instead of mocking the Personal Learning Network, I should have asked you to explain what it is. Even though I'm a member of the Century 21 Learners, I still don't know what you're talking about, I'm afraid. Does it have anything to do with RSS feeds? If so, I'm intimidated by the whole thing.

Highlighted by chartzell

well, I actually don’t know any teachers who aren’t trying,

Highlighted by chartzell

We need to know how to access the information wherever it is on our learning network, whether it’s on a server in India or in a human brain in Indiana. To know whether I go to my trusted source down the hall, or to my trusted source that’s on the other side of the planet. It used to be that if I wanted to know about farming in Nigeria, I would consult one of a limited number of experts on farming in Nigeria (and probably the expert was at a university in England or something). Or, more likely, I consulted something they had published, because it was too difficult, or expensive, or time consuming – or I didn’t have the right connections to make contact and get past the gatekeepers. Now, I may still consult some of those experts, but not only is it much easier to contact them, but there are many more experts to contact. And the expert I contact just might be a farmer in Nigeria, not an academic in England. We live in an age of abundance, not scarcity, and that’s a whole new ballgame. And our students need practice with this, with creating a PLN, using their PLN, learning and contributing to others PLNs.

Highlighted by chartzell

And don’t worry—the technology will take care of itself. Younger teachers have grown up with it so they will incorporate it into their lessons naturally.

Highlighted by chartzell

As far as teachers not trying, well – I guess I see different things.

Highlighted by chartzell

I wish only one thing. I wish I had laptops in my classroom. Without them, trying to incorporate technology is very frustrating.

Highlighted by chartzell

I’m still having trouble with this intimidation thing. With all due respect (and I’m trying to not repeat my mistakes from above so please don’t take this too harshly), give me a break. First, I’m blogging right along with folks such as yourself and your colleagues who can write circles around me. Second, they have the option of writing in a Word document and emailing it to me – no one but me sees it – and they still aren’t doing it. Third, they are supposed to be professionals. Teachers. Learners. Role Models. They can go to college, graduate, and be entrusted with the lives of hundreds of teenagers each year, but they can’t figure out a way to write their thoughts down – either publicly or privately? Fourth, it’s what their students need them to do, so therefore I expect them to give it a shot.

Highlighted by chartzell

From the beginning, computers were looked at important for students, not teachers. In fact, many schools set up computer labs for students before they gave computers to any teachers. Yet, in my experience in moving a school ahead -- and I believe my school is exemplary in many ways -- the step that made the biggest difference in changing the teacher culture was giving every teacher a laptop before we introduced laptops for students.

When teachers finally had a computer they could use at home (and many of my teachers did NOT have home computers or fought to get time on their computers), their mastery of technology skills as well as their creativity for using technology to support learning, exploded.

Highlighted by chartzell

Once they're comfortable using the stuff in their personal life, they seem to be more likely to bring it into the classroom.

Highlighted by chartzell

I have been reading the amazing dialogue that has continued for...2 weeks? on the Fischbowl. We would have had this conversation only once, maybe a couple times catching each other in the hall, but not again as a group. Technology, in this instance has given folks time to digress, stew, think, rethink and question each other. It also has given a forum for this discussion to occur outside of our building adding in many different perspectives.

Highlighted by chartzell

I agree that in this day and age, educators need to be capable users, teachers and modelers of technology, but until we solve the huge funding problems, the alienation problems, the economic problems, and the family problems,

Highlighted by chartzell

Most schools lack support levels that industry takes for granted. There aren't many Bartlebies at L.L. Bean who "prefer not to" use the technology. Industry gets tech done (at a much higher cost than K-12) or fails. We have trouble getting it done, because if we don't, everyone keeps showing up and paying for it. At least for now.

Highlighted by chartzell

I agree that there are a myriad of issues to deal with, with leadership being a key one. But, in the meantime, our students don't have time to wait for leadership to step up or for those other issues to get addressed - they need us now. We - as teachers - need to figure out a way to step up and meet the needs of our students - despite all the obstacles.

Highlighted by chartzell

The key to remaining literate is to engage in constant professional development activities such as reading blogs, using social bookmarking tools, and belonging to a professional social network.

Highlighted by chartzell