Essential Question 3
ESSENTIAL QUESTION 3: How different is your current classroom from the one in which you learned when you were a student?
I was in seventh grade during the crisis of Y2K. While I had no idea what was happening, I did know there was a chance that the world was going to end! Really though, I was in school during at the beginning of the internet age and it was a frightening time. Backing up a year to sixth grade, I can recall our classes going to the library and taking turns using the two computers to type things into this new thing called the internet. It is crazy now to think about the overwhelming feelings of uncertainty and nervousness I had as I look at my four year old daughter who just tells me to "look in up on the internet" or "ask Alexa". My, how times have changed.
In high school, I got my first cell phone. It was a Tracfone that allowed me to make phone calls and text using the number buttons and corresponding pushes to get the specific letter you were wanting. It did nothing else and mainly sat in the bottom of my backpack all day. There were no computers in the classrooms. We had two computer labs for a school of 700 students and classes would sign up to use these labs. Computers were mostly used for writing papers and occasionally we would use the internet to look up information.
My school today is a one-to-one school and I have two computers: my teacher computer and the one connected to my SMARTboard. All of my students own a phone, some of them have two phones, and 99% of them are smartphones. "Technology has greatly expanded access to education." (Purdue, 2017). Information is at their fingertips any time of the day. We also place a focus on our students learning IT skills. We start them young with computer classes and encourage them to learn about coding as they move through their education. "Technology is developing at such a rate that it simply must be a part of the modern student’s life." (Education Changemakers, 2017).
Changes in technology have brought about a shift in education. According to Brown and Thomas (2011, p. 19), "The new culture of learning actually comprises two elements. The first is a massive information network that provides almost unlimited access and resources to learn about anything. The second in a bounded and structured environment that allows for unlimited agency to build and experiment with things within those boundaries."
When I was in school, all of my classrooms had straight rows of desks that faced forward. We obtained our information from the teacher or textbook and were relatively isolated in our learning. The first chapter of A New Culture of Learning discusses the importance of learning together. There are many stories about people working together through technology to "share their interests, develop their passions, and engage in a play of imagination." The enhancements to technology over the past 20 years have made it much easier to work collaboratively with students in the classroom as well as students around the globe. "The walls of the classrooms are no longer a barrier as technology enables new ways of learning, communicating, and working collaboratively." (Purdue, 2017).
In less than 20 years there has been immense changes to education. The rapid pace at which these changes will continue to occur can make it difficult to be an effective teacher, which is why we need to create an environment that allows our students to focus on "learning through the engagement within the world" rather than drilling them with facts about the world. (Brown & Thomas, 2011, p. 38).
I was in seventh grade during the crisis of Y2K. While I had no idea what was happening, I did know there was a chance that the world was going to end! Really though, I was in school during at the beginning of the internet age and it was a frightening time. Backing up a year to sixth grade, I can recall our classes going to the library and taking turns using the two computers to type things into this new thing called the internet. It is crazy now to think about the overwhelming feelings of uncertainty and nervousness I had as I look at my four year old daughter who just tells me to "look in up on the internet" or "ask Alexa". My, how times have changed.
In high school, I got my first cell phone. It was a Tracfone that allowed me to make phone calls and text using the number buttons and corresponding pushes to get the specific letter you were wanting. It did nothing else and mainly sat in the bottom of my backpack all day. There were no computers in the classrooms. We had two computer labs for a school of 700 students and classes would sign up to use these labs. Computers were mostly used for writing papers and occasionally we would use the internet to look up information.
My school today is a one-to-one school and I have two computers: my teacher computer and the one connected to my SMARTboard. All of my students own a phone, some of them have two phones, and 99% of them are smartphones. "Technology has greatly expanded access to education." (Purdue, 2017). Information is at their fingertips any time of the day. We also place a focus on our students learning IT skills. We start them young with computer classes and encourage them to learn about coding as they move through their education. "Technology is developing at such a rate that it simply must be a part of the modern student’s life." (Education Changemakers, 2017).
Changes in technology have brought about a shift in education. According to Brown and Thomas (2011, p. 19), "The new culture of learning actually comprises two elements. The first is a massive information network that provides almost unlimited access and resources to learn about anything. The second in a bounded and structured environment that allows for unlimited agency to build and experiment with things within those boundaries."
When I was in school, all of my classrooms had straight rows of desks that faced forward. We obtained our information from the teacher or textbook and were relatively isolated in our learning. The first chapter of A New Culture of Learning discusses the importance of learning together. There are many stories about people working together through technology to "share their interests, develop their passions, and engage in a play of imagination." The enhancements to technology over the past 20 years have made it much easier to work collaboratively with students in the classroom as well as students around the globe. "The walls of the classrooms are no longer a barrier as technology enables new ways of learning, communicating, and working collaboratively." (Purdue, 2017).
In less than 20 years there has been immense changes to education. The rapid pace at which these changes will continue to occur can make it difficult to be an effective teacher, which is why we need to create an environment that allows our students to focus on "learning through the engagement within the world" rather than drilling them with facts about the world. (Brown & Thomas, 2011, p. 38).
I, for one, am excited to see what the future holds.
Resources:
Brown, J. S., & Thomas, D. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.
Education Changemakers. (2017, November 09). 4 Ways the Classroom Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://medium.com/@EduChangemakers/4-ways-the-classroom-has-changed-over-the-past-20-years-4f37cf7944ab
Purdue University. (2017, April 25). How Has Technology Changed Education? Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://online.purdue.edu/ldt/learning-design-technology/resources/how-has-technology-changed-education
Resources:
Brown, J. S., & Thomas, D. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.
Education Changemakers. (2017, November 09). 4 Ways the Classroom Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://medium.com/@EduChangemakers/4-ways-the-classroom-has-changed-over-the-past-20-years-4f37cf7944ab
Purdue University. (2017, April 25). How Has Technology Changed Education? Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://online.purdue.edu/ldt/learning-design-technology/resources/how-has-technology-changed-education
Yes, it has changed. Now we spend as much time discussing how reliable a source on the internet is as we do what it has to say, don't we? Nice post.
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