Digitalizing Education
During a lesson I am teaching in the classroom one of my students asks me " Why did Greenwich England get picked as the place where the Zero Degree Longitude line is?" Not knowing the exact answer to this question might of made me a bit nervous in the past but now all I need to do is sit down at the computer, or have a student and look it up. I can jump from site to site seeing what ideas and thought are out there on this exact question. Digital Technology.... it is everywhere... in our cars, cell phones, TV, and even classrooms. It has changed the way we get information and provides to us constant information of the world around us. No longer do we have to wait weeks even months to talk to a pen pal in china.. now we can just log on and send a live message or even Skype and see a live picture of them. Information is no longer an item you have to just go to a library to find out. Just having a computer at our finger tips a world of knowledge can be tapped into and information can be given. What does this all mean to how we educate our children of tomorrow... a lot and nothing. I say a lot in that there is a lot more information out there for our kids to see and learn from and it is our new duty to help guide them though this world of massive information. I also say nothing because really some of the basic practices that have been in place for years still apply. We still need to know how to read, write and do math. I think Digital technology just allows us to do these three things in new ways. Classrooms went from having chalk boards to white boards, to now smart boards. Pen and Paper to typewriters to now computers. Is all this technology better? I think that will be a question we may have to wait on to get the answer. Technology is helping us connect with others around the world and bring the world together in the information sharing. Learning can take place in a lot of different environments. What the effects this will all have is yet to be seen but a change has occurred!
