My Personal Learning Space!

There’s a dark little joke exchanged by educators with a dissident streak: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year snooze and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Men and women dash about, talking to small metal devices pinned to their ears. Young people sit at home on sofas, moving miniature athletes around on electronic screens. Older folk defy death and disability with metronomes in their chests and with hips made of metal and plastic. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls–every place Rip goes just baffles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. “This is a school,” he declares. “We used to have these back in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green.”

This excerpt was taken from an article published in Time Magazine entitled ‘How to bring our schools out of the 20th Century’ by Claudia Wallis & Sonja Steptoe. I found this to be quite humerous when I first read it, and then sadly true when I pondered on it for a while. Its so sad because this is so true. Everywhere and everything has been touched by technology… well almost everything. The classroom seems to be behind the times, particularly in outter-western Sydney Public Schools. The “blackboard” is still being used, and other than the rare access to computers from time-to-time, not many other forms of technology can be found. So how can we change? this you ask… THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX! Try to encorporate blogs, wikispaces, podcasting, vodcasting and the like into your lessons. This digital generation are speaking a foreign language and we need to be able to communicate to them.

In a commentary entitled ‘Interactive Whiteboards: Boon or Boondoggle?‘ ed-tech experts debate whether interactive whiteboards are worth the investment in American schools (30% of schools already having access to interactive whiteboards). The debaters stated that pace of lessons were improving, engagement from students improved, along with teacher preparation. In Britain, a larger percent of classrooms have access to interactive whiteboards, however it is argued that the teachers are not using them to their fullest potential.

Another point raised in this article which I thought was really valid was what you are getting for your money when schools purchase interactive whiteboards. While initially the whiteboards are expensive, teachers found that money was being saved as they no longer needed to buy textbooks or manipulative’s as the interactive whiteboard replaced these needs.

I think as we’re moving into a more technological age, items such as the interactive whiteboard will improve learning, however I question how much teacher-student engagement is being lost along with teacher credibility? I still think they are very valuable, I would just like to learn more before I am sold on the idea!