Technology in the classroom: Just do it.

In 1980 a typical school day in Central Texas consisted of reading, writing on paper, the utilization of pencils, pens, loads of construction paper and glue to get a lesson across to the students.  The days when the lesson included a trip to the AV supply room to wheel in a large television set propped up on a metal stand with the latest technological marvel, the VCR attached were added bonuses to the learning schema. These days our children are living in an advanced society that few could have imagined back then.  While most children were learning how to walk and talk back then these days one can find children easily perusing their parents' cell phones or tablets using newly refined motor skills like swipe and touch.  Never has technology given our children such an appealing opportunity to learn.  Why then are there so many educational systems in the world that are reluctant to embrace such technology in the classrooms?  Smart phones provide an outlet for personal and professional use but can also offer our students an opportunity to communicate with the world in the palms of their hands.  Yet, bringing that kind of technology into the classroom has met violent opposition from administrators that still believe in the old methods of teaching.  In an article by Mindshift Magazine a recent survey taken by the group Project Tomorrow reflects the growing numbers of parents, students and open minded educators that believe strongly in the use of technological devices in the classroom are beneficial.  46% of those 416,000 K-12 questioned said that they utilized personal devices to access the Internet.  A more staggering fact: "A whopping 45% of middle-schoolers and 55%of high-schoolers say that they mainly access the Internet through mobile devices. And access to tablets doubled between 2010 and 2011 – up to 26% for middle-schoolers and 21%of high-schoolers."(Mindshift, May, 2012)

By all intensive purposes, our children's minds are busy.  They are inundated with technology from an early age and when we send them to school we are trying to teach them in the same way that our fathers and mothers learned lessons.  It isn't working.  They're getting bored and it's our educators that end up paying the price having to deal with difficult students and frustrated parents.  It's time for our educational institutions to bring their teaching methods into the 21st century and catch up to the young minds that are waiting.

There's a lot of potential information exchange in the numbers above and the sooner the paradigm shifts from the old way of doing things to a more advanced and innovative way the better.  The educational system is in dire need of an overhaul and allowing technology in the classroom is just the way to help with that transition.  Our kids are bored in the classroom, let's give them an opportunity to show us what they are capable of.

Sir Ken Robinson, Changing Paradigms 

This educational information was brought to you today by the letter E

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