This week I sat down to plan our summer travels. Being married to a Guatemalan means a big chunk of our time is spent in the air…flying between St. Louis and Guatemala City to make sure that both grandmas get equal grandchildren time:) Well, this summer, the time also needs to be shared with San Diego–for the ISTE conference! Both my husband and I are going to go, and I’m very excited to continue to move forward in my tech thinking and purposeful integration.
As I was reading over the NETS (which I had never heard of before), it once again proved how vital it is that we take a look at how we’re using technology in schools. I loved how it touched on the idea that no longer is it enough just to know HOW to “use technology,” but it is imperative that our students gain digital age skills. Digital Age Skills. It’s both exciting and scary to think that when I went to university to become a teacher, “digital age skills” were never mentioned. It’s just incredible how much has happened technologically in such a short period of time.
What really struck me was when I went to the NETS page for teachers. It says that “teachers must become comfortable being co-learners with their students and colleagues around the world.” Being a co-learner with colleagues around the world is something that now is starting to catch like wildfire. It’s pretty amazing that I am now in a digital PLC (COETAIL) learning from and with colleagues from all corners of the globe with whom I have never actually met. We are all literally just a click away from tapping into each other’s knowledge and expertise. How cool is that.
The other part of that quote though, is what some educators are going to have a hard time swallowing, and that is that teachers are going to need to be “co-learners with their students.” Thinking back to Diana Laufenberg’s Ted Talk (from Jeff’s reflection on his recent conference), teachers and books are traditionally the holders of all the knowledge. The problem now is that the rate at which knowledge is coming at us is just impossible to keep up with. I know that some teachers have a really hard time telling students that they don’t know the answer to something. Yes, it doesn’t feel good to admit ignorance; however, if we as teachers aren’t going to teach (by modeling!) our students how to be life-long learners, then who is? It’s time we sit side-by-side our students and grow intellectually together.
Who knows–we just might learn something from them;)
ISTE–here I come!
