From a Student's Mouth.

How often do educators excuse themselves from breaking outside the box with their pedagogy? This is a pretty decently spelled out reason why we need to teach differently than our teachers did.

Writing about his generation, a high school student writes

"In contrast to the consumer generations before us, my generation is growing up a generation of producers. We are the YouTube/LiveJournal/Facebook generation. Mass media which has long been a one-to-many institution, allowing only the big and wealthy to transmit their messages, is turning into the many-to-many world of the internet and cheep consumer devices.

Whether it is posting videos taken on cell phones to youtube or photos taken on pocket-sized cameras to facebook. our generation expects to be able to broadcast their messages. We expect to be able to create and to share.

And, it is this expectation that makes our generation different. We are no longer content to be consumers of information. That is, we are no longer content to consume an education. To connect with today’s students, you must not only teach them, but encourage them to teach back."

For me, 25% of my teachers were probably pretty progressive, during the mid and late nineties. By progressive, I mean they weren't the traditional "preacher teacher." These 25% used the available technologies that appealed to us students and made learning relevant. But much of that 25% was in Lehigh Acres, Florida, not Pierce County, Georgia where I finished up my k-12 career. Unfortunately, most everything I did at Pierce County High School was done in a traditional manner except in Mr. Baker's class. That dude put us to work making videos, essays, power points, and took us on field trips that excited us. Any other teacher, if they used it at all, only used technolgoy because the curriculum forced them to. Mr. Baker used technology as an asset.

Even in college the percentage of teachers that used available technologies in the classroom only jumped to maybe 50-60%. I'd say that jump is somewhat indicative of a transitional period in technology, however. Maybe they weren't familiar enough, or hadn't even heard of some their technological resources. If that 50-60% was still the amount today, then the professors. I'm not a perfect practitioner of these things I've mentioned, but we should not be lagging. At this point Facebook, You Tube, My Space, Blogging, and Chatting all have been around for at least 5-6 years. Many educators use these technological instruments and aren't afraid of them. The problem is, we haven't realized their power in the classroom. Maybe now we'll have to. Apparently, some students expect us to, and those that don't would probably appreciate it.

For the full post that was quoted click: Innovate or Die