Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Is it OK for teachers to be technologically illiterate?

In this edition of The Fischbowl, Click Here, Karl Fisch takes the stand that all teachers should be technologically adept. He says that people should not be proud to say they do not understand computers, that instead they should be ashamed. The students we teach today are the future and we should be able to educate them in a manner that will benefit them in their future. He also mentions that some of the staff at his school seem to be complacent in their ignorance and not really willing to learn anything new which worries him.

This topic is an important one. It is evident that new things are happening in technology everyday and as teachers we should be up to date on things that our students need to know in order to realize their full potential. If we as teachers do not know something, we should be willing to do all we can to find out. I agree with Fisch when he says "In order to teach it, we have to do it." We can model for our students how to blog, how to email, how to video conference, etc. These are things that they need to know and we have to know in order to teach them. So what if we make a mistake? Do we think as teachers we have to be perfect, that we can't make a mistake or our students will laugh at us? It is absolutely ludicrous to let our fear of of what our students might think hold us back from learning new things, and teaching them. We expect our children, if we have any, to learn from our mistakes and not be doomed to repeat them. Why not expect our students to do the same?

1 comment:

  1. It is important to separate "What should be" from "What actually is". The reason teachers don't adopt new technology and new teaching methods is,in my opinion, because most people don't use this type of technology in their every day lives.

    For example, most people with cell phones use them to call and maybe text. They don't see how a cell phone could be used to do the neat things geeks can do.

    Most people that use computers only use it for email and web surfing. They don't understand, or care to understand, that they can create content and share with others.

    Teachers as a profession are usually overwhelmed with bureaucracy and paperwork. The last thing the average teacher wants to do is to learn new methods of teaching. Unless there is a very compelling reason to change, they won't.

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