Monday, June 16, 2008

Thing 5

Maybe I've been living in a cave, but the term "School 2.0" is completely new to me. I knew our school/district/world was encouraging and implementing more technology into education, but I really had no idea that so many opportunities for this were available to us, and for free. School 2.0 means to me, that the physical walls of the school are no longer the boundaries for learning, but that reading, and most importantly, writing, will occur in a much broader environment via the internet. I know from personal experience taking college courses that many assignments/tests are now done online, but didn't realize this was trickling down into our childrens' educational experience. I think the future will bring a much more collaborative educational environment, where students from all over the planet will be learning together and communicating with each other, by sharing what they have written, or thru blogs, podcasts, etc. I think that the face of education as we know it today will be completely different in 5 years. Students are demanding to be taught on a more technical level, and it is becoming more difficult to inspire and excite them by teaching with traditional methods. I, myself, am all for it, but I'm sure a lot of teachers are not, as it is going to require teachers to become better trained in technology just to stay ahead of their students.

1 comment:

Sunnigal said...

Like you, I didn't realize our district had so much available to assist us in becoming technology savvy. I spend so much time preparing for teaching, filling out special ed paperwork, and testing that I barely have time to teach, much less find the time to explore options available to us. :)

Seriously, I was excited to see these three online classes available during the summer when I have time to spend with them. I agree, the future of technology in education will require teachers to become much more computer literate. For some that will not be difficult; for others it will be a nightmare. Fortunately for me, I love learning new things, and I do have a solid background in computer literacy, having taught it in the past.

But the enormous amount of available programs is almost overwhelming. To pick and choose which ones to use and which ones to pass by leaves my head spinning. I hope this class will point me in the direction of the best ones to consider and not have to spend time investigating so many.