Flickr: Editor B
Keeping up with all the up-to-the-minute gadgetry can be overwhelming for anyone, but for educators who have to engage students who regularly use these tools all day long, it can be especially challenging.
Education blogger Mary Calhoun Brown counts all the ways teachers can use the many pieces of technology available to them and their learners, while engaging their digital native students.
As educators, we are reluctant to change our ways. Honestly, if you’ve been teaching the same subject for 15 years, why would you rock the boat? But if we stop learning and trying new things, we become stagnant and obsolete. The children we teach today are fundamentally better at understanding technology than we are. They’ve been immersed in electronics every day of their lives. They eat it up. How can a textbook possibly compete with YouTube? And how can you and your chalkboard possibly compete with the text message buzzing wordlessly in their pocket?
We must embrace the technology that excites our students.
She provides some easy pointers:
- Sharing calendars and documents.
- Creating blogs.
- Sending group texts to parents.
- Skyping.
- Listening to their MP3 players during tests.
Another inspiring message for educators to wade into the tech world.