Last night my family, including my 22 year old daughter and 16 year old son, gathered around the TV for a little family fun and watched the Democratic debate that was taking place right here in SC. (Are we geeky, or what?) As we listened to the candidates and provided our own running commentary, I kept trying to explain to my children what a ground-breaking event this was. For the first time ever, questions in a political debate were being asked by the “common man/woman” via YouTube. I kept saying, “This is so cool!” My children are used to their mother’s fascination with the joys of technology and its power in the world, and as usual, they sort of blew me off. The best I got from them was a comment from my son that there should be some kind of application of You Tube for education, and I told him that it already existed, and it’s called Teacher Tube. With the predictable eye-rolling, that was the end of that line of conversation. But I still find myself amazed at what an awesome thing it was that this debate featured questions from citizens around the nation instead of carefully framed questions from reporters. The Internet is reshaping the political scene of our country, as evidenced by the Obama Girl video which had been viewed 2,663,738 times before I saw it!
I felt the same type of amazement over the Live Earth concert. No other event in history has ever had that level of global participation. Every continent on the planet, even Antarctica, was represented. (As a sidebar, that concert was another example of techno-geek mom having to pull her supposedly “digital native” children into the digital world.)
It’s less than a month before the new school year begins. As I ponder my job transition from a classroom teacher to a technology integration specialist, I’m keenly aware of how far the education establishment has to go to even begin to adequately prepare our students for this flat earth. The way we go about choosing the best candidate for president is being reformatted because of technology. A world-wide audience can now be made aware of important global issues. Communication is no longer “business as usual.” How can we continue to teach in the same old ways, business as usual? Daily it seems, I’m reminded that there is an immediate need for a paradigm shift in American education, or our children will all be left behind. How can we initiate change from the grass-roots level? How can we transform instruction to be more relevant to the needs of our students in the real world of today?
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4 responses so far ↓
You know I am totally with you on the subject of initiating change in the classroom. I also think that it is interesting that your “digital native” rolls his eyes at the idea of an educational version of YouTube. This probably has something to do with the feeling that education and educators sometimes find ways to drain the “fun” out of things. This is probably one of those obstacles that we as educators and “digital immigrants” need to overcome.
On another note wouldn’t it be really cool to make teaching more collaborative by having students post questions on sites like TeacherTube and have educators from around the globe help answer those questions and present various perspectives and resources. To me that sounds like a greater learning experience than asking and answering a question in a single-teacher classroom.
I think the key is getting teachers and administrators on board that some changes or shifts need to occur and that they are a part of “best practices”. Then those “pioneers” need to guide the others down their established trails and encourage them to create their own trails.
I really enjoyed reading your thoughts. I went back to the earlier entries and it made me feel good because I feel like a “wanna be”. I have been lurking around reading blogs and trying to get my ideas organized. I am ready to start something!
As for the “digital natives”, I watch my own native daily finding things of interest to her on YouTube. I see how into the digital world she is and I want to find a way to transfer that into my own classroom.
We just need to get people to understand that you kids can learn so much more than just a standard at a time. By pulling the standards and technology together, we can give our students a purpose and power to keep on learning.
Keep on writing! I can’t wait to watch this develop.
The You Tube aspect drew in a younger audience to the debate and the presidential race, no doubt about it. One of the questions that aired, but wan’t answered, was from a young blogger on this listing…check out Mossy’s Animals blog, and the You Tube question.
I think SC ETV could do an SC version of an educational You Tube, if they haven’t already. They seem to have a lot of good digital offerings.
Do rural schools have the facilities and training to put this to use?
Thanks for sharing Mossy’s Animals blog. Very impressive! It will be a great resource to use at school both with students and faculty. His blog and You Tube question illustrate my concerns about education lagging behind the digital world. At this point I wonder, what meaningful contribution is Mossy’s classroom experience making in his life?
SC ETV provides access to unitedstreaming, a collection of over 5000 educational videos that are available online to all public schools in SC. I’m sure that there are some rural schools that probably have only limited access to these resources. At this time I don’t believe that teachers can create or contribute videos to this digital library, but that is a fantastic idea!! Thanks for your comments, Mark!
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