"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."

After watching all of the videos and reading the articles this week, I can say that I've found a lot of different ways to integrate technology in classrooms, but I can't honestly say that I know how in the world I'm going to do it when it's my turn! I love all of the ideas, but who really knows what kinds of tools we will (or will not) have available once we get going in our own classrooms? Thankfully, I have found a few ideas that I think I can apply no matter what is in my classroom. What I've learned this week is that integrating technology in the classroom isn't just about bringing in the latest and greatest tools to play around with, it's really more about finding out what our students need to be able to do in the future, and then finding the best methods and tools we can to help them learn those skills.

Through the technology in the classroom videos, I found many great ideas that seem fairly easy to implement in my classroom. One of my favorites was the idea of setting up a classroom blog. One of the teachers stated "everyone speaks up in my blogs, even the shy ones." Setting up discussion boards is now easier than ever, and it's a great way to get students more involved in class discussions. I was always a student who felt much more comfortable writing what I felt than I did speaking about how I felt. How many students are too afraid to speak up in class? How many students just don't get a chance to speak out because other students prefer to hear the sound of their own voice? How many times do we as teachers get so caught up in what we're saying that we forget to check in on our students to make sure that everyone is keeping up with us, and not just the few in the front row nodding their heads? All of these problems could potentially be solved by setting up class discussion boards. These are different from the traditional written responses in many ways. Discussion boards allow students to communicate with each other, and not just with the teacher. As one teacher stated in one of our videos, "technology creates opportunities for teachers to reach students, for students to reach each other." Isn't one of the main goals of 21st Century education to help students learn how to cooperate and communicate effectively with their community? Formal papers provide them formal writing practice, but blogs and discussion boards can provide them with opportunities to relax and have fun with writing, and help them get used to communicating as a community where everyone has a time and a place to speak their piece. Every education textbook I've come across rants that our students need more writing practice in school, and I can honestly say that I've written more in this class through discussion boards and blogs than I have in many other classrooms. It's not nearly as painful, but I'm still writing, I'm still finding my voice, and I'm still thinking critically.  Aren't those all things that we want for our students? Something as simple as setting up a discussion board can accomplish so much; just imagine what the more sophisticated technology tools can help us achieve?

One great example of sophisticated technology helping students was obvious in the teacher video focused on students with reading disabilities. These programs were highly successful, as the students' testimonials and smiling faces proved, and these technological tools helped students in more ways than one. Some teachers may fear that programs such as these may lessen the need for their presence as learning specialists in schools, but I would have to disagree. These new tools are no replacement for a living, breathing teacher, but they do help the students to develop "independence and confidence." Tools like these can teach our students the an important life lesson: everyone needs help sometimes, but they can also achieve more than they ever may have expected all on their own. Technology isn't always about finding answers the easy way, or taking short-cuts. If used correctly, various kinds of technology can be integrated into the classroom in such a way that students will learn bigger life-lessons that can help them immensely in their futures. They're not just learning reading strategies, they're learning how to be more independent. Another teacher pointed out that when students create a video for class, they're not just making a video, they're "synthesizing what they know into something new, working with other people, and effectively communicating it with someone else." Perhaps these ideas seem idealistic. Many schools cannot afford this pricey technology, but does that mean that they never will?

Some of the ideas presented in our articles and videos this week may seem idealistic and out of the question. Sure, maybe some schools will never have a laptop for every student. Surely, we may never have 100% of our students with internet access at home, but does that mean we should stop trying to look for ways to make these ideas work? I might just be a hopeless optimist, but I can't help but think that even the biggest, most outrageous ideas might be possible in the future. Maybe we won't all be able to play with the latest and greatest technological tools, but we've found evidence that we can help our students better prepare for their futures in the 21st Century in all kinds of ways; whether they're using spellcheck or speaking to students in a live-chat on the other side of the world. All that matters is that we stay focused on helping our students acquire the skills and knowledge that they need to be successful in the future. Some ideas seem out of the question now, but who knows where we'll be 15 or even 10 years from now? Imagine what educators were saying was impossible 30 years ago. Imagine what they would say if they watched the teacher videos that we did this week. Maybe some ideas sound idealistic and outrageous now, but who's to say that today's idealistic and outrageous isn't tomorrow's standard?

All of this new technology probably will change my role as a teacher in the coming years in a big way. I can't say that I completely buy into the idea that all education will take place online in the future, but I can say that I completely believe and accept the fact that the role of teacher will be changing. As I mentioned earlier, many technological tools help students to become more independent and confident, thus I may not be as much of a lecturer and demonstrator as I might be a facilitator and assistant. This, frankly, is fine with me. It's not that I want to work less. In fact, I believe that in order to integrate technology effectively in the classroom, I might have to work even harder, just in a different way. I'll have to work at learning what new technology is out there, and work at coming up with unique and innovative lessons and assignments that foster creativity and independence rather than obedience and adherence to the status quo. There's an old saying: "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime." The way I see it, in years past we've been giving our students a fish. We've been throwing information at them so that they could memorize it, pass a standardized test, get their diploma and move on. What technology is doing is helping us to better teach our students "how to fish." We're not just handing over information anymore, we're asking our students to go find it for themselves and not just memorize it, but do something with it. We're not holding their hands so much anymore, we're asking them to trust themselves and find their own sense of independence. That's the kind of future I see in the world of education, and I'm all for it. My role as a teacher will undoubtedly change, but as long as I can stay focused on helping my students learn skills that will help them grow in the future, I'm willing to change too.