Recent Changes

to change. Check out research on how the human brain is evolving as a result of students being exposed to a multitude of digital devices. (Human Brain Project - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Brain_Project)
In a book that I am currently reading, "Understanding the Digital Generation" by Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, and Lee Crockett they have outlined some of the differences in which students today get and process information. Here is their list:
a. Receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia sources

Last night I went home and reflected on our discussion. I think all of us agree that students need to be able to critically think, collaborate, create, and think outside of the box. What exactly is the role of the teacher in a 21st century classroom? I suggested that we are coaches or mentors for our students. The role of a coach or mentor is to work individually with a student to emphasize their strengths and to help them overcome their weaknesses. The coach will teach strategies that will help the student be the best they can be at a particular skill. Teachers are also designers of lessons, questions, and projects to teach content and motivate students. How can we move from relevant to real for our students? How can we take all the above roles and develop lessons that are creative, engaging, and real to our students?
Yesterday we had a discussion about the difference between relevant or real. Many of you had a difficult time seeing the difference. According to "Teaching Digital Natives" by Marc Prensky, "relevant means that kids can relate something you are teaching, or something you say, to something they know. Relevant means taking readings, for example, out of the current newspaper rather than old textbooks. Real, on the other hand, means much more and goes much farther. Real means that there is a perceived connection by the students, at every moment between what they are learning and their ability to use that learning to do something useful in the world." WOW! Now what, how do we do this, it's too much work, not all students have computers, classified kids need too much guidance, etc. As many of you brought up yesterday, not all students are savvy on the computer or even have a computer home. There are going to be many challenges we will face as we make this shift from teaching to partnering. I know from experience that students today seem to be able to pick up new technology quickly. Just buy a new cell phone and give it to any student and within a few minutes they will understand most applications on the phone. I would have to sit down and read the manual and I would still have problems. We need to learn how to develop wikis, tweet, blog, and podcast so that we can teach our students these skills. We need to help students make these connections so they can become involved in social changes, collaborate with individuals in other parts of the world on topics that interest them, and being able to communicate with experts in fields in which they are passionate about through Skype. Only then can we help move from relevant to real!
During our discussions, some of you were able to look at your current lessons and walk away with an understanding of how to make it real for your students. English students could submit letters to editors, develop blogs about their interests in which classmates are allowed to comment, edit work online, or write about how a book they read made a difference in their life. In social studies, students can become involved in community forums through twitter, visit virtual sites/museums on most topics, and use webcams to observe people all over the world. The important thing to remember is that we have to help students see not only how it is relevant to them, but how it is real to them now. As a special education teacher, technology has made it so much easier to differentiate instruction. There are so many options that we now have available to us. As you continue to develop your upcoming lessons, discover your students' passions and try something new. Give your students choices on how they can demonstrate understanding of content, allow students to manipulate the knowledge to come to their own understandings. This may mean giving up the center stage and letting students step up to the plate. Accept that it may not work out perfectly the first time. This will be new to many of your students. Another good starting point would be for you to develop a wiki, participate in a blog, or learn to tweet. Experience first hand what technology has to offer.
We can no longer afford to educate today's students for tomorrow's world with yesterday's schools. John Chapin

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