Saturday, March 9, 2013

21st Century Teachers Must Be 21st Century People

Ask any teacher how to best teach students, and many will mention something about modeling. We understand that, if we want students to behave a certain way, we must model that behavior. This is true about personal interactions, work-ethic, manners, or any other behavior.

However, as is often the case, best practice gets tossed out of the window as soon as technology enters the picture. Modeling usually gets set aside due to a lack of knowledge that brings about fear or a lack of understanding that technology is vital to our students' futures. All of a sudden, students are expected to learn without support. We want students to keep their devices away while they watch us pull ours out on a regular basis. We want students to use their laptops only for work, while we are using them for real-life, every-day activities.

The reality is that technology is here to stay. It is guaranteed to change, but it is not going away. Whether it's Twitter, Facebook, or Google+; blogs, websites, or wikis; tablets, laptops, or smartphones; i-OS, Android, or Linux; students will NEED to be competent with technology if they are to have a chance at success in the future.

In my opinion, if we really want to be successful at preparing students to use technology in appropriate, powerful, and creative ways, we need to be modeling. But, how can we model something we can/do not do? Sure, we could all take some professional development courses. But, is that really enough? I do see the value of good PD, but can that actually give us all of the experience needed to model technology-use for the students? I don't believe it can. After all, imagine if our students only practiced reading, writing, and math in school. Could they actually be proficient at any of the necessary skills to be successful in life? That's absurd, right?

If we still have the passion to be teachers, we need to "Like" something, tweet something, post videos on-line, master search engines, use a mobile device, create a circle, or share a bookmark. (You can find a much more complete list of skills here.) And, we need to do these things as a regular part of our normal lives. After all, we wouldn't accept our students telling us they don't have time to read, write, or use math outside of school, would we?

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