Kevin Honeycutt‘s recent video I Need My Teachers to Learn came through my Twitterstream this evening.*
* courtesy of @mguhlin, who in turn was forwarding a link to Richard Byrne’s site Free Technology for Teachers, who himself references Wesley Fryer’s Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog. Wes heard of it from Rae Niles. I haven’t chased the thread further back, but this is the nature of the web. 🙂
(I’m mentioning this trace of the propagation of this video because it so nicely illustrates the power of social media connections between educators — it speaks volumes of the incredible potential for said technologies to revolutionize learning, for educators and learners alike.)
At any rate, the video’s title and catchy tune, coupled with the very important message, prompted me to post it here to edVisioned.ca. While I know many educators who continue to work in education for the very fact that they enjoy learning (as well as educating), the rapid pace of technological advance is creating the potential for a considerable gap between the currency of teaching methods and the use of technologies in schools. Not only do teachers need to continue to learn, teachers and administrators (along with IT departments) need to recognize the technologies accessed by students outside of schools are part of their “thinking” and “doing,” and we need to not only learn/understand these things, but advocate for their inclusion within out educational institutions. Hats off to Kevin and his team for producing this:
I particularly connect with the third verse, which references netbooks, Skype, and district firewalls. Despite having toted a notebook for over a decade now (13 years? 14 years?) as a professional working in education, I grapple on a daily basis with a policy that denies me permission to connect to the network in my school. Imagine not being allowed to use a pencil! Or notepaper. Or a television. Or a DVD player. Or a phone.
But we will get there.
It will just take some time. And some advocacy.
And learning. Continual learning.
Both I and my students Need Me to Learn.
It’s also going to require trust and confidence on the part of those charged to maintain the network that guests can be trusted to use the resources wisely. But, let’s get on with it. I’d suggest that most people would use it wisely and not be interested in bringing the network down. I’d prefer an environment of trust rather than one that identifies potential users as criminals.