I’m encouraged by the National Writer’s Project Digital Learning Day blogs, because they reveal teachers who care deeply about connecting with their 21st century students. The few blogs I read were from teachers who go to great lengths to relate to their students as they are and to adapt the daily classroom activities to the skills and interests that students already have. This teacher lets students use multiple forms of media—computers, cell phones, e-readers—to achieve classroom objectives, instead of blindly criticizing students’ desire to use technology. Another teacher asked students to choose one of the essential questions from a three-month unit and respond to it in written and artistic forms. Students combined technological and tangible methods to create posters of themselves “interacting” with the essential question. The content of this project engaged students’ search for identity, while the method of achieving it engaged students’ technologically-advanced capabilities. Lastly, a third teacher calls for immediate change within the educational system. She exposes some of the downfalls of the current system—namely, that many schools consider students’ use of technology (i.e. cell phones) a shortcoming instead of an asset. She encourages us—teachers and districts—to accept the “chance to show our students how much we do respect and admire their skills by stepping out of our comfort zones to learn from them” (Bence).
These are the teachers from whom I want to learn. These are the positive perspectives that view students as human beings, with skills, assets, cultural and technological capital that they bring with them into the classroom.
Works Cited
Bence, Janelle. "Digital Learning Day: A Call to Action." National Writing Project. 1 February 2012. Web. 3 February 2012.
