500 educators let their feelings be known as they stormed Capitol Hill June 30th, 2009 . While they were all clad in matching blue t-shirts, each saying Invest in 21st century learning, they brought their cause to the footsteps of the very people that could help their cause. While visiting 90 Senate houses and 200 House offices, they hoped to encourage lawmakers to invest in what could turn the tide of modern education.
The article, Class-Tech Push Reaches the Hill, appeared in the Washington Times on July 13th, 2009 . The author, Carolyn Bourdeau hopes to enlighten readers to a cause already in motion to improve education. "[A digital-age learners program is] a program to ensure that our new teachers have the skills to integrate technology into the classroom," said Ms. Goldmann. "It would provide funding to colleges of education, teaching teachers coming up, so that they have experience with technology before they arrive in the classroom. There is no federal funding for a program like that at all." Ms. Goldmann and her peers understand that the current educational system fails to reach students in their own medium. Students are most comfortable using technology and learn quickly with technology, but one of the problems is the availability of technology in the classroom.
Goldmann understands that this is a difficult time to ask the government to provide more money for education while our country struggles financially, but what better is there to invest in. Ensuring the technological savvy of students can help catapult the United States
Goldmann hopes that this program can better equip future educators to be the agents of change that this country needs as it embraces its new technological strengths. The application of technology in the classroom is limitless. It is hard to argue that it would not be for the students benefit. “Ninety-seven percent of high school students use computers, as do 80 percent of those in kindergarten, according to a 2003 release by the National Center
These teachers represent what our class is. We are a new echelon of teachers trying to combine old teaching methods and learning with new technologies to create a hybrid that gives students the best opportunities to learn. That is what we are doing in this class. We are bettering ourselves as educators. We can be the agents of change that this country needs.
This post reminded me of a quote I recently heard, "having a job is a 20th century idea." There seems to be a lot of focus, in this article and in school for us, about how important learning technology really is. The issue I find with this is, how do people not know how to use technology? It seems that there are so many ways in which a person would use technology that it is amazing to think that there are people out there that do not know how to use it. I think that teachers that do not know, should not only learn for the students but also for themselves. As long as a person learns something new, they then have the option to choose not to use it but so often I see people (usually of the older generations) not even try to use it and disband it before the chance is even given. My mother is this way, she hates the internet and the computer but has never used one in her life, so this is not an educated opinion on her part and there are a lot of people that seem to do this. There are a lot of benefits to technology on a personal level and teachers who do not know how to use technology could learn for themselves first and see what all the rave is. All of this will only come to benefit the students in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post!
Cassi