Reflection 9/26

I love Sir Ken Robinson and I always find his talks so inspirational. Oddly, they always make me feel discord as well. I wholeheartedly nod in agreement when I hear him speak about how our school systems are killing creativity, prioritizing the wrong things, and are in need of a complete overhaul. However, I live and work in the system as it is now. In my role as a director, it is my job to make sure that we are following "the rules" that are placed upon us by federal and state mandates. It is my job to create effective systems that guarantee a certain level of consistency and commonality. As much as I agree with everything Ken Robinson is saying, I also recognize the need for some degree of systemization. So how do I live in a system and make the most positive impact I can, while simultaneously supporting an complete overhaul?

Response: Chapter 1

I felt like the chapter affirmed my beliefs about technology in education in several places. I really believe that technology needs to be used strategically and purposefully if it is going to have a real impact on learning. As he said in the chapter, "Good teaching is still the key to effective schools." (pg4)  Teachers need to be properly trained in the technology so that they can use tools strategically to empower students. The power is in "getting children to take initiative and think deeply."(pg6). That will not happen by simply putting hardware in front of kids. It will happen when kids are guided in how to harness the  power of the tools for innovation.

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

We recently watched the video Learning to Change, Changing to Learn as part of our Leading (http://youtu.be/tahTKdEUAPk) with Instructional Technology course. In very broad terms, they were making reference to the fact that education in the United States has failed to keep up with the technology of our current world. As I was listening and nodding along in agreement, I was also thinking about so many factors at play in our current system that are obstacles on our road to technological advancement.  I say obstacles rather than barriers because I am optimistic that they are factors we can work around, but they are definitely slowing us down in the journey.

The primary factor that I feel is negatively impacting our ability to make adequate progress in our use of instructional technology is a lack of resources; particularly time for professional development and money for hardware.