Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 - Learning 2.0

It amazes me that after teaching for 25 years the part of education I so disliked as a student, namely rote memorization and filling in the blanks is finally being seriously challenged and made history by technology. I have always felt that if it wasn't fun and engaging, it wasn't memorable thus not worth spending valuable time on. I very much enjoyed the videos for singing to the choir so to speak and wish every educator had access to each of them for their in service days prior to school opening. It will be like chipping away at a very large block of granite to create the future of education, but over time with enough collaborators (starting with the teachers) it will happen. I particularly enjoyed the students voices in the videos, and I have always believed that it is not ADD or laziness that effects the student but BOREDOM. The difference now is that through technology they have the power to do what human beings are inclined to do naturally, create, communicate, socialize, and seek information. Such an important distinction between memorizing the facts vs. teaching them where to find the facts, thus giving them the freedom to select their own best path to knowledge. It means admitting we do not have all the answers, and relinquishing a measure of control that educators somehow think they must maintain in order for learning to occur. Nothing could be further from the truth because that control (no cell phones, etc) crushes individuality and creativity and causes some to just tune out entirely. Teachers need to accept technology and administrators need to embrace it for all its amazing potential. Give kids a space to share, create and think, empower and engage them and learn from them.