For our staff development day on Friday March 19th, I had the opportunity to present to the faculty alongside Mr. Jachlewski, our Assistant Principal, on the topic of teaching and connecting with students. The idea for the topic (and the day overall) was generated by Mrs. Keipper, our Principal, after viewing the video Did You Know 4.0 about the social media revolution underway. Mr. Jachlewski put together the framework and bulk of the topics. I added many of the technology aspects and compiled the data presented.
Our goals for the presentation were to:
- Raise awareness about social media
- Cause faculty to reflect on their teaching
- Cause faculty to reflect on the future
We spent some time talking about what it means to be a teacher, what it means to be a student, how to engage students, and what the world of the student is like outside of school. We then spent a little time looking at what it means to be connected, what a student of connectivism looks like, and the role of the teacher in connectivism. Next we looked ahead and considered the implications of using the computer that most students have – the mobile phone – as a tool in the classroom. We ended by talking about the “why” – why does this matter? Here is the presentation file we used:
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We raised lots of questions, and did not intend to provide answers. We are in the midst of a technology revolution, and need to consider what to do. There are pros and cons to social media and its place in the classroom. For example, students are used to multi-tasking on numerous activities when at home and connected to their computer and cell phone. In school, it is much more necessary to stay focused on one topic at a time. Does this mean the school is out-of-touch with how students learn or is school the only place left where they learn this skill? Where does social media fit into the picture? Many schools are trying to leverage the impact by using sites like Ning to have school-centered social networks. Does this promote learning or promote socializing?
This discussion fits right into where we are at with our Technology Committee. We have come to the end of a 5-year plan that focused on placing hardware tools in teachers’ hands. We are in a good place – computer labs, mobile labs, projectors, interactive whiteboards, clickers, etc. The next logical place to go in hardware is some form of 1-to-1 computer initiative for students, but there is no indication if/how/when that might happen. So where do we go for our vision for technology for the next 5 years?
What are your thoughts, arguments, comments or other reactions to these topics?
In a simple two-word question, What’s next?