I’m Dreaming of a Tech-Savvy Classroom

Bing Crosby’s Christmas Classic “I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas” begins with the lines I'm dreaming of a white Christmas/Just like the ones I used to know. When I think of the kind of classroom I want for my children (an eighth grader and a fifth grader), I’m dreaming of a tech-savvy classroom unlike the ones I used to know … or the ones I currently know, including the high school classroom I’m in charge of.

I had a few extra minutes in one of my senior English classes this past week, so I asked my students to imagine they were starting over in 9th grade. Knowing what they know about today’s technology, I asked them to envision a classroom that would use the most up-to-date technology they had heard of … and this technology would be provided to them to use inside and outside school at no cost to them. Once they got beyond suggestions “to listen to music while working” and “to text whenever they wanted,” they started talking about the Apple’s new iPad … never mind that they had complained earlier in the week about the small size of the Netbooks we had been using.

As I was reading some of my new favorite blogs – I’m excited to be living the life of a blogger - earlier this weekend, I read a recent eSchool report, “Small-group collaboration: How Technology Facilitates Learning in Small Groups.” The article discussed ways high school students can use Google Apps to collaborate on a wiki, journal, or blog. Even though my current students didn’t suggest this kind of digital learning environment, I know them well enough to know they would thrive in a classroom that used learning tools such as these. (The report can be found at http://www.eschoolnews.com/2009/11/01/esn-special-report-small-group-collaboration/.) I chuckled when I read that in one school district, “All teacher professional development takes place online, and teachers take part in online collaborative work groups.” What would the administration at my school think if we couldn’t get together on Monday afternoons? LOL!

Again, while blogging, I encountered a great website (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org) that summarized and clarified the direction our schools should be going in now that we are actually living in the 21st century. “Student outcomes for the 21st are the skills, knowledge and expertise students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st century.” Included are information, media and technology skills such as information literacy, media literacy, and ICT literacy.

The more I read, the more I wanted to crawl under my laptop because even I get bored in my classroom sometimes … those times when I stay in my comfort zone and use those teaching methodologies that I have used for the past 27 years. If I am all about preparing my students for life beyond high school, them I am going to have to be a part of creating a tech-savvy classroom … in my own classroom and expect the same for my own children as they move on to middle and high school. So when my dream of a tech-savvy classroom comes true, every student will have his/her own hand-held device to facilitate learning.