Tech Savvy Classrooms? Or Not Yet?

After reading the first few chapters of Empowering Students with technology, I felt like someone actually "got it". November touched on the struggles, frustrations and amazing moments that can be brought about by technology in the classroom. As teachers, we did not necessarily have computer instruction throughout our school career. I personally remember typing class once or twice a week where we learned where our fingers should go and our words per minute report at the end of the year. I did not need to know the difference between .com and .org or understand the credibility of a web site...web site? What is a web site? I remember dial up and not being able to sneak online at night because of the obnoxious sound pattern that would wake the dead. And I'm only 26, part of the "new generation" of teachers that are bringing technology into the classrooms. But even as the new teacher, I didn't grow up with what these students are familiar with. This raises an issue of students being more in touch with making a website than their teacher which was pointed out by November. When my smartboard malfunctions I turn to my students rather than the teacher next door. This new generation brings new challenges, we as teachers need to teach students how to understand the internet, to weed out the accurate information from the information posted by Joe Shmoe. Critical thinking needs to include online information. When I saw the site www.archive.org described in the text, I made a huge star in my book which I hate to do! You can look up the history of a site? You can see the progression of information that you thought was lost in the vastness of the internet black hole? This is great!
As teachers, we face the new issue of how to balance the need to teach and utilize technology and the district policies. Of course it would be amazing to have a classroom blog, a class website and assignments that require online research or presentations, but we are not there on a unanimous level. If we are going to expect students to enter a world where they MUST understand the internet and connect with people through social networking sites, we need to start when they are young so that it is natural for them. In a world where the internet is the number one technology for children, it amazes me how little is is used in classrooms and how many schools have no technology--not even a smartboard.

It makes so much sense to use what we have available to provide students with more authentic learning, why not skype with experts in the field in which your class is studying? A class in China when studying China in grade two, or Mexico in Kindergarten. Why can't students watch a web cam of a live fiesta?

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These experiences are things we can do now! I am baffled that technology is not being pushed harder, especially after attening the I Citizen event and reading modern readings on the issues.  The following video depicts two classes, one being in Hawaii utilizing skype as a technological "pen pal" program.

As a last note, how much sense would it make to offer video conferencing to parents that struggle to make it into the school? Or if a student is sick, to be able to send them homework or even a virtual lesson to watch at home? There is so much potential in technology that we as teachers are not utilizing yet. The town hall meeting pointed out that we should see leaps in the next ten years, but in the next ten years imagine how much technology will evolve!