Journal #6:Change Agent (Nets-5)

Rebora, A. (2010, October 11). Change agent. Education Week, Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/

This article was about Will Richardson a former teacher turned technology expert and his ideas about transforming education.  He has written books on how to integrate Web 2.0 technology in K-12 classrooms.  Richardson argues that schools need to transform their teaching and learning models to meet changes in technology and the world. He believes teachers should be transparent and easily accessible.  To accomplish that he believes all teachers should be “googleable” meaning they can easily be found online.  If teachers build an online presence they can more easily build connections, share your work, share ideas, and become more effective teachers by collaborating with other teaching professionals.  He also believes schools need to take more responsibility for teaching students how to use the internet effectively to find information they need so that students can learn better.  Kids need to learn to collaborate to solve problems, exercise critical thinking skills, and learn how to handle failure instead of memorizing useless facts they can easily look up online.  If kids learn how to use the internet effectively they will know how to find the information they need and they can learn on their own.  He wants to see schools get away from teaching to the test and instead use curriculum that will show students how to solve problems.  Much of the learning going on in schools today is about content and not key traits they will need to be built up to be successful in the real world.

Q 1. How can you incorporate technology into your classroom?

I think a good start is for teachers to be “googleable” because my doing that they give themselves access to the world of education.  As teachers I think it’s important to be an example of what you are trying to accomplish.  By being an active learner teachers can learn from other educators how to effectively incorporate technology in the classroom.

Q2. What is one of the problems with transforming education?

As a teacher there is only so much you can do because you don’t have control over the curriculum in your classroom.  With federal, state, and local policies that require certain material to be covered and tests to be implemented it makes it difficult to make progress in changing education.