Being Better

At Leslie Intermediate School we know it is important for our students to learn to use technology. We know exposure to digital knowledge is necessary for the students to become prepared for the next step in their education. Not being digital natives ourselves provides a great struggle for our staff. This vast knowledge of ipads, iphones, itunes, netbooks, internet, etc. has always been a part of our students' world. They have limited knowledge of 3 channels, landlines, partylines, overhead projectors, 8 mm film and 8 track tapes. Just how can we as educators "teach" these students what they need to know to use this digital world? We attend various PD sessions, we read about different aps and 2.0 websites, but is that going to make us capable of teaching these students to use this information? The answer is probably not. To become better educators of this digital generation we are going to have to become digital immigrants. We are going to have to move to this land and immerse ourselves into this world. Just like an immigrant comes to a new country and learns to survive we are going to have to learn to survive so that we can be the educators we need to be.

 How can we make our travel as digital immigrants a success? The easiest way is to become involved and practice. One of the best ways to grow as an educator is to use Twitter. Learning to follow the people who are on the forefront of education makes for great research and learning. An educator can build their on Personal Learning Network of individuals with the same interest and desires as they have.   Even more valuable is learning the correct hashtags to search.. #edchat, #satchat, #edtech, #CommonCore are great examples.

 Another tool is to practice using blogs and wikis. These are great tools for collaboration and communication that teachers can use with their students and also allow  parents to see what their children are doing and what they are learning.  If you do not want to practice with your students, gather a group of teachers to become a mock classroom.  Set up a blog and/or a wiki with assignments for your colleagues to contribute to.  You can set the settings for private so that only the people you want to see what you are practicing can see.

 Pick an app. We are blessed to have at least one ipad per classroom and have more coming. Teachers need to become familiar with the apps that are out there for their curricular area and become an expert in the ones they find valuable. Teachers sometimes get sidetracked by downloading several apps and then never learn to use them properly. Good apps to have in general are Evernote, a whiteboard app like ShowMe, and Google Drive as that is supported by our school e-mail.

 Explore and become an expert in at least one 2.0 website every nine weeks. We don't need to overwhelm ourselves with all that is out there. With just a little exploration, teachers will soon learn the transfer of skills from one website to another.

 The best tool we probably have is our students. Let us be the communicator of the content and let the students teach us the how to present the information. They are far more familiar and far more skilled in this area then we can hope.

 Trying to teach this world of digital natives is going to be a challenge for us digital immigrants but with commitment to practice it is something we can do.