Shift Happens – Don’t Let Technology Pass Your Classroom By!

As new technologies emerge, the demand on educators and staff to keep pace with the skills needed to keep up continues to grow. Are you ready for the new school year? Students like to use technology and they are native users besides, so it comes pretty easy. Teachers for the most part struggle a bit and wonder why things continue to change so fast. To keep courses relevant teachers continue to modify and revamp how they teach, students continue to move very fast forward with technology. Ultimately we need everyone to move forward at the same speed. In some cases teachers and staff rely on students to get them through. Should the student become the teacher when it comes to technology?

Implementing 21st century technology within classrooms is important to our country’s competitive advantage. According to former secretary of education, Richard Riley, the top 10 in-demand jobs predicted for 2010 didn’t even exist in 2004. So how can a teacher help prepare students when in some cases the problems haven’t even been defined yet? Somehow as an education facility we must be able to lead, and take our staff and student forward into the next level with technology.

Knowing how to use email and corresponding is just not enough for base computer knowledge any more. What our students need is full integration on the most recent release to prepare them for what comes next. We don’t have the comfort of status quo with technology. We must keep up even when it makes us uncomfortable.

Implementing new technologies within our classrooms is one thing,but educating our teachers how to really use this technology is another. It is underwhelming the number of teachers who do not know the basics of computer fundamentals, let alone those that are not comfortable to use the tools as a creative and functional learning tool. Students need a lot of multi-media, multi-functional, and multi-approach projects. Creative teachers need to be able to think and do things using the technology in hand. These tools are all available and waiting to be unleashed, but teachers are hesitant, in some case unable to use the technology to be creative, and effective with critical learning lessons.

Shift happens! All teachers and staff need to catch up. Kids as young as five are spending their time on computers playing games, Google searching, chatting with others across the ocean, or homework assignments. This was unheard of ten years ago. This should be a great advantage to a teacher; these kids are pre-trained on using computers and feel very comfortable doing almost anything you ask them to. It doesn’t mean they are great at it, but they are comfortable, and ready to expand into new areas, new ideas and new applications. The problem is they are only using a portion of the tool at hand. Teachers need to be able to lead them into critical thinking skills using what comes natural for them. Teachers need to teach them the application of the skills they are being raised with.

Teachers and staff will have to move themselves to a different level just to maintain the level of learning we have now. Students will tune out when they are not challenged in relevant areas of today’s living. Teachers teaching email is not an option for students. Teachers using video conferencing with other schools and global communications with sister schools are more inline with a relevant experience. They will apply their software skills to new levels to accomplish more critical thinking projects.

Everyone knows the teachers that are effectively using technology in the classroom. The kids light up, interested and eager to engage. All teachers today need to be moving actively in this direction, now. But teachers need help to get there. They need to know what technology can do for a math class, or English class, building skills that meet school curriculum objectives and at the same time making the material relevant to how the student communicates, and process information. Teachers need to be able to be comfortable so they can build classroom activities that make the students active.

Yes, it’s a real interesting shift going on in schools, but it’s not an option that this be addressed, it’s just a question of how. Talk today to one of our education representatives to find out how they are seeing schools reach lofty technology objectives.