Todays youth are far different from the educators who are expected to help them learn. Even I, born in 1996, can remember times without access to the internet. I recall the times at home when I had no access to the outside world as a child. Today the world is different.
Wi-Fi links homes and societies once miles and timezones apart. This is the world that today's students operate in. A world that pulls them together with their peers and offers easy access to each other. As educators, our roles should not be to shut this connection down. Nor to inhibit it. Our role should involve directing their desire for connection in the right direction. Technology can be harmful if used inappropriately, however, it is also a great tool if we can harness it to further learning.
Idea's have been racing through my head today, in how I can use technology to allow students to see the world. As a social studies teacher, I want to use technology that allows students to interact with history. I don't want them to memorize dates and facts. I want students to see it is living and breathing. That our world is a product of the past and we have so much to learn from it. An avenue for this might be finding interactive maps that allow students to explore the development of trade routes and the content in the unit we'll be going through. Allowing students to blog about what they found interesting and activities they enjoyed would also be a useful method to expand student learning. Theres more than what I see now as well and I'm excited to see what else I could use as a teacher.
How do you think you'll see technology change as a high school teacher? Do you think you'll have to help navigate social media friendships and connections more frequently? I like your ideas about how to incorporate technology into your classes. I think they would have been a fun way to learn at that age.
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