Last night in class, I thought that the discussion about technological possibilities for the future was extremely interesting and I spent my drive home thinking about it. The technological advancements are endless for students; but I wanted to throw this out there and ask if anyone else had the same thought:
First, I have worked outside of education for 13 years before becoming a teacher for the last 10, so I have experienced both. I believe today, that people in education are a bit out of touch with how bad the economy is as we, for the most part, are secure in our jobs. Most of us have not experienced downsizing, layoffs, etc., so it is hard to relate to other people who don't have jobs and can't easily find another. So my point:
With advanced tech I started to think of all the good possibilities such as students accessing work and activities from home, if they are sick can get homework; someone mentioned having the class log on at 7pm and have a class discussion, etc. The next logical step in years to come: snow days could be counted as a school day as long as the teacher can document all students logged on and participated; the next step, to save energy in cold or hot regions, cut out Fridays and or Mondays and work home home, thus eliminating transporation costs, energy costs, food, etc......
I guess you see where I am going with this, could teachers be downsized? When I did my first master's in history 4 years ago there were no on line classes, now there are many. At least at the high school level, I believe technology can eliminate jobs and teachers in the future may become a statistic like the 2008 financial sector employees who are losing their jobs by the thousands!
Just something to think about...
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1 comment:
Alice-
Great post and something to think about.
We can make the most state of the art classroom with computers, projectors, Elmos, SMART Boards, Dance Dance Revolution pads, music creation software. We can provide the newest online programs, scientific measurement tools, laptop carts, and art supplies.
The classrooms, courses, supplies, and computers don’t teach by themselves.
Without a skilled educator to guide, facilitate, take risks, question, challenge, inspire, manage, and motivate, they are just tools....and tools that can be used poorly.
To become (or remain) an educator 2.0, teaching styles need to adapt with the technology to make sure the modern tools are being used to facilitate understanding and thinking, which they can't do by themselves.
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