STSD Curriculum & Technology Update

Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.

Ain’t Gonna Hold Us Back (D-I-G-I-T-A-L)

Like many of my “baby boomer” generation counterparts, I have found myself fascinated, overwhelmed, challenged, stretched, excited, intrigued, and amazed by the integration of emerging technologies into our lives, our workplace, and our learning environments.  As a teacher and reading specialist, I will always value the personal ownership of books where we can write our names inside the cover to mark them as ours, jot notes in the margins about our thinking, and highlight the “nuggets” of another person’s thoughts that speak to us. 

This “baby boomer” is also learning the value of collaborative technologies that allow us to share our thinking and communicate more broadly than has ever been possible.  I am ready to make room for and learn from the new generation of “digital learners” who have access to more information than was ever thought possible and who are able to communicate in ways beyond our comprehension ten or fifteen years ago.  We use to talk about learning styles and people being auditory or visual learners.  Well, there is new meaning to the phrase “visual learner” and I am learning to make room for and become a digital learner....a new reality for me, but the “way it is” for these first graders!!  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!  I would love to hear your reactions. 

Aint Gonna Hold Us Back (D-I-G-I-T-A-L)

Comments

Incredible. This kind of quality product needs to be coming out of each of our buildings also. This will definitely be shared with our teachers as a model and built upon as we start to learn the potential of all the new equipment we’re getting…

This is adorable--and incredible! For youngsters to articulate the importance and need for technology--albeit with assistance, I’m sure--is a testimony to the role of technology for digital learners. It is as necessary to their learning--and, like it or not, to their lives--as paper and pencil were to our own respective educations.

Priceless.  My five year old grandson learns just like the girls in the video.  His mother and father both work with computers, so Jacob has literally grown up digitally, not with Toys-R-Us models either.  If first graders can make this video, what should we be making in high school.

Wow! The creative energy of engaged digital natives continues to amaze me!  Just this year as I have updated internet safety discussions and activities with my students have I noticed how easy it is to underestimate how much our young learners already know about various technologies.  We cannot rely on what worked even last year as many students come into the classrooms more aware than the year before; as the technology changes at a breakneck speed, the learning curve is only slightly slower (less so for those digital natives than we older folks!).  Sharing positive, productive examples becomes even more important.  The importance of gender fairness also reiterates the need to consider the democratic balance of exposure.  Schools need to be thinking about filling in the gaps among gender, class (who has exposure to the latest technology at home (or not), etc. 

Another thing that interests me is how the software and hardware companies market their product.  I don’t think we can ignore some of the issues that Marshall McLuhan’s messages initiated a couple of generations ago.  Now more than ever his basic ideas resonate for me.  Just as we teach students to consider the important features of a webpage, its purpose and its author, we also need to do so with video clips (youtube, etc.) Lines seem to blur.  Don’t misunderstand me.  I celebrate the fact that companies will support innovation in school.  What’s interesting to me are the entire dynamics and the implications we need to consider.

What an invigorating way to promote technology, and at a wonderfully young age!

Kudoes to the participants! The multiiples ntelligences of students, and teachers, come to the top when given opportunities such as those demonstrated in these entries. Performance, motivation, creativity, synergy, , ... = learning and community!

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