This week has been even more eye opening for me.   I am getting more and more interested in reading and learning about technology and the impact on our lives and the lives of our students.  I came to the school for some quiet time on the weekend to work on this course for an  hour or two and 4 hours later, I noticed I had got caught up in the informative blogs of my colleagues as well as all the interesting information on my RSS Reader.  I am lucky to have another coetailer at my school and we talk daily about what we are reading and learning from this course.   I have started sharing articles and websites with other staff members who are also interested.  I feel like I am engaging in learning with my colleagues and working on one of the goals for week 4, “model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and other is face-to-face and virtual environments”. 

 I have titled this blog “Listen to the Experts”, because I feel that we really need to be listening to the students.  They are the experts. In his article Shaping Tech for the Classroom, Marc Prensky looks at the four-step process of technology adoption, “dabbling, doing old things in old ways, doing old things in new ways and doing new things in new ways”.  He states that, “resisting today’s digital technology will be truly lethal to our children’s education. They live in an incredibly fast-moving world significantly different than the one we grew up in.”  I agree with Prensky when he suggests how we can move forward, “First, consult the students. They are far ahead of their educators in terms of taking advantage of digital technology and using it to their advantage. We cannot, no matter how hard we try or how smart we are (or think we are), invent the future education of our children for them. The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education.” 

 I have been in many discussions with my colleagues about integrating technology better and more efficiently, but this week I will make a point of talking to more students and listening to their ideas and suggestions.  As our school implements a 1:1 ipad program next year, I for one will advocate that students be a big part of the process.  As a “digital immigrant”, I can learn a lot from our “digital natives”.