Blog #12

My Blog Assignment

Blog Post Assignment

Read Mr. Scott McLeod blog: "We Can't Let Our Educators Off The Hook".
Read and summarize Mr. McLeod’s blog then answer the following question in two to three paragraphs. “Do you think it is really okay to allow teachers to choose whether or not they incorporate digital technologies into their instruction?”

My Blog Post

"We Can't Let Out Educators Off The Hook"

This blog by Mr. McLeod is about how he feels educators can’t reject technology or choose not to take advantage of the new tools for education. I agree with Mr. McLeod when he says “I think most teachers don’t even realize that there’s a decision to be made.” Some teachers might not even know about the new technologies that they can use in their classroom. Many teachers have probably never been introduced to the amazing technologies available to them now-a-days. More than likely they don’t follow blogs or listen to podcasts either. Most of the teachers out there are your average educators who “aren’t aware that there’s a whole other world that they have easy access to.”

He goes on to say that since many educators haven’t used or possibly seen this technology, how are they supposed to understand and have conversations on the impact of these technologies that their student’s need. He says that the educators that do know about the technologies only represent a very small portion of the all the educators out there. He says, “We’re the minority, the outsiders, the ones who talk using strange terms involving words with far too many missing vowels.”

Mr. McLeod believes that we cannot let educators off the hook. He says

“teachers or administrators or librarians or education professors, they have a
voluntarily-assumed, paid responsibility to be relevant to the needs of
children and education TODAY and to prepare graduates as best they are able
for TOMORROW. Otherwise, what are educators there for?”

He also says that with the new technology available today there is no excuse for being ‘unable’ to learn and use technology in the classroom. He states that technology and social media tools are very simple to use in this day and age. This is very true. Everyone can blog, or create a wiki, or podcast just as easy as it is to create a facebook status or post. Mr. McLeod then says that the reason most educators do ‘get it’ is because we know the world is changing and we want to change with it. He says that learning to use new technologies in the classroom is “what life-long learns do. That’s what effective educators do. That’s what we owe our children.” He even says that we are all still learning when it comes to technology. Mr. McLeod then states that it is up to us to prepare our students. Our students deserve to be prepared for a world with the technologies they will be faced with.

I could not agree more with Mr. McLeod. There are so many new technologies out there today and so many outlets on how to learn to use them. As an educator I feel that by using these technologies I am helping and preparing my students for their future, and by not using technology I am disabling my students. I believe that teachers should have available to them new teaching technologies, and that they should definitely use the technology given to them and not let it collect dust in their classroom. By using technology in our classrooms we are enhancing our teaching as well as better preparing our students.