My New Direction

Change is natural...Change is natural.... Change is NATURAL??? Heck no it's not! Change it a ton of time, and hard work- but it can be enlightening, and FUN. For our kids, we need to make it pleasurable and try really hard to make it seem natural. Just like the mega-Olympian Michael Phelps makes his butterfly look easy, and natural. We know that he's been training since before he hit puberty- for hours a day, 6-7 days a week. BUT he makes it look soo effortless. THIS is what we, teachers, need to do. Make change look, or feel, EFFORTLESS. Moaning and groaning only hurts the kids, and make the person doing the whining miserable! So, let us, the few who are exploring technology within education move those who are afraid, forward with ease and compassion.

Many schools are, or should be, implementing some sort of virtual learning in the classroom. This could be blogging, district/school/class twitter accounts, wikis or even Web 2.0 programs/applications. There are so many studies of teachers posting video lectures on a class blog site along with notes over the content that students access out of class. Pros: This allows more time to have hands-on activities in class with more student-teacher interaction. Cons: It takes time to prepare the "lecture." Time is precious, and sometimes hard to come by for teachers. My IDEA: Only post class notes/lectures on Fridays. Allow the kids all weekend to access, and let the post cover the entire week. Do not try to burn yourself out by re-posting lectures/notes every day.

Reusability is an AWESOME benefit the World Wide Web has brought to teachers. I remember, when I was a kid, my mom (also a teacher) was sorting through her school boxes. She pulled out a collection of HUGE binders, and called them her "educational bibles." ???? I asked her why they were so important, and she told me that they contained every lesson plan she had ever made for every subject within every grade she had ever taught. Now, looking back, I couldn't imagine having binders full of lesson plans!! We have the Internet now! We do have to be careful that we do not infringe on intellectual property rights. The Web has made it all too easy to discover, then copy and paste anything we need. I am looking at possibly going into Library Sciences and becoming a Media Specialist. If I violate copyright, I could lose my license. :-/ Eeks. This is a topic I hope to thoroughly attack in my LIS classes.

Rich Media is defined as: learning products that incorporate high-end media such as sound, video, animation and simulation. After working towards my Masters in Educational Technology, I cannot see how I would ever keep Rich media out of any classroom. I am still torn on my future career, but whether it is post-secondary education, or a library, or even back to the classroom I will use rich media in multiple ways. These ways could be: instruction, presentation, classwork, projects or even examinations.

Emerging Technologies ARE the future of education... I cannot wait to incorporate Web 2.0 into instruction in whichever field I choose. When I was in the classroom, we used educational and virtual games. These games have been around for a long time. The oldest that I remember was the Oregon Trail, then Sim City in High School. My son is already playing Sim City and learning about infrastructure and money management. He is 6.

The classes I have taken over the last 5 months have been very informative and exciting. They have shed new light on how we can evolve the education system and ways to improve our students' desire to learn. I am very passionate about making others passionate and finding new approaches to things... Anything. Life will always have obstacles and we will always have to adapt and change. The future is, and will always hold change.

Good luck to everyone and may we use, and "reuse" the things we have learned through our education. I hope that everyone passes the knowledge we have been fortunate to learn on to our peers, students, administrators and family whether they work in education or not. Remember that learning takes place with everyone and everywhere!