Internet for Educators: Some Opening Thoughts

The Revolution is Here: 

I entered into the public education system in September 1989. It's safe to say, then, that the bulk of my educational years were spent in the 1990s, with my high school graduation happening in 2002. I can safely say that in the ten years between the time that I left the public education system and the time that I reentered it as a teacher candidate, a revolution has happened in the use of technology in the classroom.

In 2002, teachers were still primarily using chalkboards in order to interface with students, though a handful of whiteboards had started cropping up. Most classrooms did have a computer or two, but these are almost entirely for the use of the teacher. Computers in the school were usually clustered in a 'computer lab' or a library. Crocus Plains, where I went to school, had two computer labs and about six computers in the library. They were used primarily for the computer science classes or in the case of the library, for research purposes.

I remember designing a wretched website in Grade 10 computer science using something called FrontPage, as well as doing basic programming in a few different languages. This was all in an era where the average website could be measured in kilobytes, where the definition of cutting-edge were animated .gifs or the odd grainy 10-second video. The Internet primarily existed for surfing or e-mail. Few people bought anything online and hardly anyone used the Internet as a primary interface tool.

In 2012, we have students who do most of their schoolwork and social interaction online, who are already purchasing many of the items they want or need online. The computer labs have largely been dismantled and are now replaced with laptops or iPads, though most rooms now have 4-5 desktop computers as well. The SmartBoard is rapidly replacing many of the traditional uses of the chalkboard or whiteboard, as well as adding functionality that would be impossible with the older technology. Students are now not only browsing websites for research, but they are making their own websites, blogs and SmartBoard presentations for classroom purposes. It is possible for students in a class to make content viewable by millions, or only by a small invited circle if they so choose.

Whether we like technology or not, it has come into the classroom and not giving students the tools- both the technical skills required to navigate and use technology, but also the ethical and moral tools needed to deal with a rapidly changing culture, would be a serious abrogation of our responsibility as teachers. Most of the technological changes that we hail, unfortuantely, have their dark sides. Social media has led to cyberbullying, the Web offers the same free access to hate literature and pornography as it does to cutting-edge research and up-to-date information.

Teachers are not simple technicians and even in the use of technology, we cannot limit ourselves to this technical approach. We must also be philosophers and guardians. The revolution is here and we can't turn the clock back, but we can prepare students for the new technological age.

It's a pretty heavy responsibility, yes, but it's also potentially a lot of fun. Technology is exciting and we need to demonstrate that to students.

I'm looking forward to seeing what tools this class provides me to help do just that.

Sincerely,

Mr. Keen