Classroom Tech

The title of this class is “Technology in the Classroom.” When I signed up for it, I thought it would focus on building web pages and getting “creative” by putting chalk-and-talk notes on PowerPoint. These two skills I thought were the cornerstone of the catchphrase “21st century skills.”

As the weeks have passed and I have been introduced to Sir Ken Robinson, I have realized that technology in the classroom is more than computers. It is about revolutionizing education by adding – and emphasizing – creativity in our lessons so students walk away with a skill that will carry them into an unknown future.

“Everybody has an interest in education,” Robinson said in his 2006 speech at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference. “It’s education that is meant to take us into this future we cannot grasp.”

The last time the world was changing this quickly was during the Industrial Revolution, of 1790 to 1860.

“In less than a century, new machines, new sources of power, and new ways of organizing work had transformed the United States from an agricultural nation to an industrial power,” states the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

At the same time, public education was the purview of local and state governments. The U.S. Department of Education was not born until 1867, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Yet here we are, 142 years later, still trying to prepare students for an industrial world that no longer exists. Why? I think it is the fear of the unknown and politics. It is easier and safer for elected and appointed officials at every level to tell taxpayers that they are focusing on the basics. People can grasp the basics –reading, writing, arithmetic – because that is what they had in school. The public cannot grasp “creativity,” which Robinson says in the current technology revolution is as important as reading.  So instead of worrying about “leaving a child behind,” shouldn’t teachers and policy makers worry about “pushing them forward.”

“All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them – pretty ruthlessly,” Robinson said in the TED conference. “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”

Computers can serve as the portal to this creative world where the art of communication will surely be important. Computers and the ever changing technology they harness can help kinesthetic, visual, auditory learners navigate through the unknown. Yet for all the magic of computers, it is still teachers who will inspire their students to greatness.

Randy Pausch and YouTube taught us that.

(P.S. I would have embedded a Robinson photo and Pausch video if my PC would have let me. Technology!)