Teacher+Role

====The video makes a good point. I think people often look down on this type of labor. Even in the process of emphasizing technology and higher-order thinking, the opinion that is often expressed is that robots and machines will perform the manual labor as time goes on... the idea that those jobs won't be there. That may be true to some extent, but the video makes the point that, yes, those jobs actually still are there. Other people are just doing them for us. Everyone does not need to go through the same type of education and get an office job. We emphasize this in education --- diverse learning styles --- so why wouldn't we recognize it in the working world? Different people are skilled at different things, and that's good. I think that our use of the computers and internet in school allows for numerous creative learning approaches that we could not use before. Innovation --- it's definitely there with 1:1, High productivity --- that's a skill that high school kids are learning (some better than others) :), Quality --- this is what we assess and they learn to judge themselves too. ====  How do we motivate our teachers to change what they do and how they do it to really match 21st Century Education?  I don't know what every teacher out there is thinking, however I would guess that most of us do see the need to change the way in which we teach. I don't think we are lacking motivation. But I don't think this is something that can change overnight. It takes time. **A lot of time **  to look into the resources that are out there for the different subject areas, to test them, to see what works and doesn't. It is something that requires more than a little planning after school and during prep periods or in-service in order to fully develop within a curriculum. There are so many other job demands that not having the time, in my opinion, is definitely the biggest obstacle. 

Wow that video opens up many different issues for me.
This is a mantra that I have been hearing at Tech Ed Conferences for years, that working with your hands is undervalued. I'm not sure why. I do know that when the air conditioning goes out at someone's house, people usually want that corrected quickly. This will require someone with good analytical skills to diagnose the problem and essential hand skills to make the repairs.

One of the reasons that Walmart can deliver the "best" prices is that an overwhelming amount of their products are imported from China. I was glad the video mentioned how products in China are created in situations where there are little to no safety and environmental regulations. And then there is the issue that China is Communist regime that stifles individual freedom (remember Tiananmen Square, 1989). And now much of the our debt is owed to China.

How do we compete against the staggering population difference? ====As for teaching innovation, high productivity, and quality skills. I find students coming into my classroom need to be inspired first to want to learn what I am trying to teach them. If I can use a large brush... many students are willing to "settle" for less than the best in quality of their products. The drive to be innovative can be fostered by us by providing opportunities to do so, but I think this quality may largely be an intrinsic personality trait. How do you motivate students to want to "collaborate"? I think we are working from the premise that this is something they want to do naturally and I not convinced that is the case. So first must come the motivation/inspiration from us, the sales pitch. ==== ====user:mcanFrom the video, I gathered that most of the outsourcing has a lot to do with Americans not being willing to work for wages that other countries do. That is a hugh topic for discussion, with many of us having varied opinions I'm sure. I do like the idea of school/businesses coming together for successful training. Chambersburg HS is thinking of placing a bank in their school soon so that students learn with hands-on training.====

====To answer your question about education and the change in teaching/learning that needs to take place - heavy topic -- I think it would be good if we got together and discussed this. Many of us have been researching the 2.0 world and I'm sure have lots of comments and thoughts on the topic. Maybe come CPT???==== =How do we reach the teachers?=

Changing how you teach, and to some extent what you teach, is a very uncomfortable idea to teachers. We are so used to being the "expert", that we cannot always see how beneficial it is to embrace change. Yet change happens. Continuously and without our approval. If we do not change, we become stagnant and outdated...and most of us understand that education has become exactly that: stagnant and outdated. Many of our teachers at BHS are doing a great job trying to incorporate technology in their classrooms. I am very proud of us at BHS. But we are only scratching the surface. We, as a school, need to challenge ourselves to step into a full 1:1 program. Walk down the halls and you'll see students on computers, but are they using the computers in the same capacity they would use their notebook? Not always, but sometimes the answer is a painful "yes". So the question becomes: How do we motivate our teachers to change what they do and how they do it to really match 21st Century Education? (I'll be honest, I've been trying to do exactly that for a year and a half without as much success as I would like.) We need to make sure that we can easily justify the need for Web 2.0 tools; if our teachers won't use them because their teaching style is "just fine", then our argument looses a lot of weight.

Hopefully to inspire you, I've added a link to a CBS Evening News segment, //Where America Stands: Manufacturing//, that was on Tuesday night. It talks about how, in the 21st Century, America has stopped making things (outsourcing). Look at the statistics from 2000 to 2009! The video also speaks to the importance of Americans being able to do the research and development (designing, engineering, marketing) of the products that are outsourced. We are now starting to loose the higher level jobs because our students leaving high school do not have the skills or the drive to compete with students around the world. The students need to be taught innovation, high productivity, and quality skills. It is up to us to do that.

===//It's time we take off our training wheels. It's time we stop saying "because we've always done it that way" and start saying "what is the best way?" And if that "best way" changes, then we change with it!//===

//How will the teachers insure a quality 21st Century education for our students?//

From an article,//One-to-one computing programs only as effective as their teachers// by Meris Stansbury, sent to me by one of our teachers who "gets it": It’s “impossible to overstate the power of individual teachers in the success or failure of 1-to-1 computing,” Bebell and Kay write. “Teachers nearly always control how and when students access and use [the] technology during the school day. In addition, teachers must make massive investments in time and effort to adapt their teaching materials and practices to make the 1-to-1 environment effective and relevant.”

//[]

As far as the teacher role goes, we would still need to be ahead of the game and keeping an eye on what is going on in the classroom as we are now. It will certainly make more options and possibilities available to the students (both good and bad) if the internet is opened up more. But as usual, with the first questions back when we began roll out, I don't think it really means a whole lot new as far as classroom management goes. There are always going to be bad things that students can get into, with or without computers and with or without internet. I think we are doing a good job of trying to teach kids how to deal with real issues by not restricting everything. We are being trained (and I'm sure will continue to be trained and reminded) to be aware of what is going on in our classrooms (as much as possible) and to show kids how to use technology and //freedom// responsibly and to the best of their abilities. How can we teach them how to make good decisions and give them that edge in the future workplace if we keep the training wheels on?

Cramer: I LOVE that "Keep the training wheels on"......What a great way to visualize what we are trying to do. I'm going to start quoting you. Cramer: I created a new page "LFS and 1:1" and moved the LFS thoughts there.

Side-note: These are just my thoughts, and I don't think it's anything that hasn't been said before. Are we supposed to be finding information that we can cite, or just sharing ideas, or both?

Cramer: both...anything...everything!