Moving towards a paperless society?

Not in schools . . . Here is my stack of papers copied for the first week of school. Granted, maybe I should be better at conserving paper, but the thought that came to my mind as I lugged this load back to my room from the copier was that SO much paper could be eliminated from schools if students had laptops!!! So wishing we could move into this century in the educational world!!!

Reading and Writing Conference 2009

I went to the 2009 Teaching Reading and Writing Conference in my state in June, and MANY of the workshops dealt with the use of technology in teaching - and in particular, "new technologies" such as podcasting, blogging, social networking, etc. It was almost frustrating since my county is so anti-technology.

One of my realizations during the conference was that instead of continuing to fight the system and complain about what I CANNOT do, I will work hard to integrate the technology that I AM allowed to use.

I wrote up a proposal for a class called "Digital Literacies" and I am hoping that I get to teach a group of 9th graders how to effectively use technology (from the simple powerpoint to digital video). More to come on that . . .

Intelligent musings . . .

and (maybe not surprisingly) they aren't mine! :) I LOVE what Will Richardson has to say about talking with students about how they use technology. . . and incorporating it into education. I understand that you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but it is important for educators to realize that THE WORLD IS CHANGING whether you agree with the changes or not, and rules such as the cell phone rules are so antiquated and don't take into account that nearly all high school students have cell phones (as do all the teachers, administrators, and everyone else in the American workplace).

In my county, a student can get three days of in-school suspension for just having their cell phone out and visible. . . even though many of them use their phones to check the time, since they cannot read the clock on the wall! It is very interesting . . . even though I don't want students texting in my class, in this day and age, that isn't much different than passing notes.

Like it or not, technological advancements in communication are changing many things in our society . . . unfortunately, education isn't that great at keeping up!