The article on the Digital Immigrant and the Digital Native really captures a good bit of the challenge we as educators at the Harrisburg Academy must wrap ourselves around. Unlike most every other discipline, we must recognize that in many ways students are and will always be ahead of us on the technology learning curve. They were born, digital natives, into the technology evolution; they embrace it unquestionably. Their brains are wired differently from those of us, the digital immigrants. Our acceptance of this environment is key to providing them with the resources and the skills to survive and thrive in a world that doesn't even exist yet. My next post will be a first draft set of technology-related goals that we should consider as part of the Academic Excellence section in Academy Challenge 2013. I invite your comments and questions.
1. Provide ubiquitous student access to computing resources. Like the pencil and paper or calculator tools we had as school students in our day, computers and related technologies are the tools for the student of the 21st century. Students in the 2008 to 2013 era are wired into a cohesive, collaborative mass that is difficult for us to comprehend. However, it seems to be working. We must support this evolution in thinking and provide them with access that fits this new lifestyle. At a glance, a student huddled over his laptop or cell-phone may appear to be withdrawn and anti-social. This is usually not that case. In fact, he may be interacting with a world of other individuals. Can we say global presence?
2. Provide the student computing resources that are necessary to "extend the day". In order to promote the notion of life-long learning, we have to start with today. It is very important for the emerging collaborative learner to be able to take every advantage of every learning moment. This means that learning must not stop at the door of the classroom, or the door of the school. Today's students need access to their digital native tools whereever they are. Eventually, students will come by the tools they need. Until then, it is our responsibility to help provide. Between now and the time when every student has all the resources he or she needs growing as natural appendiges, we, the school need to help. Issues of parity must not be allowed to seperate students into "haves" and "have-nots". Resource allocations must be fair and equitable. Every student must have the same opportunities.
3. Provide appropriate teacher-support technology. In order to be a classroom leader, facilitator, coach, mentor, or whatever other label can be put on teacher, the faculty need technology that embraces and supports the collaborative nature that learning is taking on. The digital immigrant student learns in so many differnt ways. Our classrooms need to attempt to stimulate all those avenues in order to bring about the most effective learning. Technologies in support of this methodology include interactive smartboards, teachers with laptops, wireless Internet access for all studets and teachers in every classroom and the ability to provide certain specialized technology as appropriate to the subject matter, for instance, digital cameras in art, or electronic microscopes in biology.
4. Provide appropriate professional development opportunities in support of points 1, 2, and 3 made above. It may seem like it's never-ending (and that's because it is never-ending), but teachers need to know how to make the best use of the technology provided. As mentioned in the previous points, students' needs will inherently drive the integration of technology into all aspects of curriculum. There will always be something new to learn. Recently reported at a CAIU Technology Advisory Council meeting, it is the schools that provide adequate professional development and, even in some schools, a dedicated technology integration advisor, that are seeing the best results and having the most success with making technology an everyday part of the students' day and keeping the students satisfied in their desire to use their digital native "instincts" for learning.
5. In support of the first four points, we need to draw out the maturity of our new School Information System and related databases. It was a long time in coming, and there is still much work to be done, but the implementation of Blackbaud's Educator's Edge, FAWeb and NetClassroom in the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years has done more for the school's administration and back-end teaching support than anything else since computerization began in the 1990's. We must continue to move forward with this unified database by supporting additions to the system for the Admission office, integration with Raiser's Edge in the Development office, conversion to an Online Database-driven Web Community, and finalizing the whole process with inclusion of the school's Business functions. This is all attainable within the scope of this strategic plan.
I am in agreement with Bob’s stand on where we need to be in Technology. Academic excellence for this new century cannot be based on the methods of the past. Students have an entirely different learning make-up from what educators encountered in learners even 20 years ago. Our faculty must be ready to embrace Technology. Our board and administration must be able to make the fiscal commitment to keep us competitive with the public schools. We are very much in the race with our competition but we cannot let up.
Bob's and Marlynn's points are well-taken and well put. Even though I am not familiar Educator's Edge or FAWeb, the Digital Immigrant/Native article helped me understand Bob's goals enough to agree with the general direction we need to take.
After our discussion today about allowing students to bring personal computing devices to school, I am in agreement that we should start toward this goal immediately and then we can better gage what our school lap top needs will be.
I just received an email from Sophos, our Anti-Virus software vendor, and the company we plan to use for EndPoint Security, or for securing our network against malware brought in by student-owned or any other non-school-supplied computers. The email doesn't tell me much more than I already knew about the product and what it will do for us, but I thought you might be interested in seeing their announcement and have the opportunity to look more closely if you wish. Just go here to see -> http://www.sophos.com/mk/get/NA-EMAIL20080312?_ED=SDuhF2ED_JET0jcKh6BRJu&lang=en (You might have to copy and paste this URL into your browser.
8 comments:
The article on the Digital Immigrant and the Digital Native really captures a good bit of the challenge we as educators at the Harrisburg Academy must wrap ourselves around. Unlike most every other discipline, we must recognize that in many ways students are and will always be ahead of us on the technology learning curve. They were born, digital natives, into the technology evolution; they embrace it unquestionably. Their brains are wired differently from those of us, the digital immigrants. Our acceptance of this environment is key to providing them with the resources and the skills to survive and thrive in a world that doesn't even exist yet. My next post will be a first draft set of technology-related goals that we should consider as part of the Academic Excellence section in Academy Challenge 2013. I invite your comments and questions.
Technology-related goals first draft:
1. Provide ubiquitous student access to computing resources. Like the pencil and paper or calculator tools we had as school students in our day, computers and related technologies are the tools for the student of the 21st century. Students in the 2008 to 2013 era are wired into a cohesive, collaborative mass that is difficult for us to comprehend. However, it seems to be working. We must support this evolution in thinking and provide them with access that fits this new lifestyle. At a glance, a student huddled over his laptop or cell-phone may appear to be withdrawn and anti-social. This is usually not that case. In fact, he may be interacting with a world of other individuals. Can we say global presence?
2. Provide the student computing resources that are necessary to "extend the day". In order to promote the notion of life-long learning, we have to start with today. It is very important for the emerging collaborative learner to be able to take every advantage of every learning moment. This means that learning must not stop at the door of the classroom, or the door of the school. Today's students need access to their digital native tools whereever they are. Eventually, students will come by the tools they need. Until then, it is our responsibility to help provide. Between now and the time when every student has all the resources he or she needs growing as natural appendiges, we, the school need to help. Issues of parity must not be allowed to seperate students into "haves" and "have-nots". Resource allocations must be fair and equitable. Every student must have the same opportunities.
3. Provide appropriate teacher-support technology. In order to be a classroom leader, facilitator, coach, mentor, or whatever other label can be put on teacher, the faculty need technology that embraces and supports the collaborative nature that learning is taking on. The digital immigrant student learns in so many differnt ways. Our classrooms need to attempt to stimulate all those avenues in order to bring about the most effective learning. Technologies in support of this methodology include interactive smartboards, teachers with laptops, wireless Internet access for all studets and teachers in every classroom and the ability to provide certain specialized technology as appropriate to the subject matter, for instance, digital cameras in art, or electronic microscopes in biology.
Continued in next entry...
Technology-related goals first draft, continued:
4. Provide appropriate professional development opportunities in support of points 1, 2, and 3 made above. It may seem like it's never-ending (and that's because it is never-ending), but teachers need to know how to make the best use of the technology provided. As mentioned in the previous points, students' needs will inherently drive the integration of technology into all aspects of curriculum. There will always be something new to learn. Recently reported at a CAIU Technology Advisory Council meeting, it is the schools that provide adequate professional development and, even in some schools, a dedicated technology integration advisor, that are seeing the best results and having the most success with making technology an everyday part of the students' day and keeping the students satisfied in their desire to use their digital native "instincts" for learning.
Technology-related goals first draft, conclusion:
5. In support of the first four points, we need to draw out the maturity of our new School Information System and related databases. It was a long time in coming, and there is still much work to be done, but the implementation of Blackbaud's Educator's Edge, FAWeb and NetClassroom in the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years has done more for the school's administration and back-end teaching support than anything else since computerization began in the 1990's. We must continue to move forward with this unified database by supporting additions to the system for the Admission office, integration with Raiser's Edge in the Development office, conversion to an Online Database-driven Web Community, and finalizing the whole process with inclusion of the school's Business functions. This is all attainable within the scope of this strategic plan.
I am in agreement with Bob’s stand on where we need to be in Technology. Academic excellence for this new century cannot be based on the methods of the past. Students have an entirely different learning make-up from what educators encountered in learners even 20 years ago. Our faculty must be ready to embrace Technology. Our board and administration must be able to make the fiscal commitment to keep us competitive with the public schools. We are very much in the race with our competition but we cannot let up.
Bob's and Marlynn's points are well-taken and well put. Even though I am not familiar Educator's Edge or FAWeb, the Digital Immigrant/Native article helped me understand Bob's goals enough to agree with the general direction we need to take.
After our discussion today about allowing students to bring personal computing devices to school, I am in agreement that we should start toward this goal immediately and then we can better gage what our school lap top needs will be.
I just received an email from Sophos, our Anti-Virus software vendor, and the company we plan to use for EndPoint Security, or for securing our network against malware brought in by student-owned or any other non-school-supplied computers. The email doesn't tell me much more than I already knew about the product and what it will do for us, but I thought you might be interested in seeing their announcement and have the opportunity to look more closely if you wish. Just go here to see ->
http://www.sophos.com/mk/get/NA-EMAIL20080312?_ED=SDuhF2ED_JET0jcKh6BRJu&lang=en
(You might have to copy and paste this URL into your browser.
Post a Comment