I want to use technology as a tool to inspire my students to take what they already know and meld it with what they don't know. I want them to see how to move forward, we also have to look backwards. That life is a journey of knowing and not knowing, and it is how we handle not knowing that really shows us what we can be.
B.G - Before Google. It was the teacher's role to be the provider of knowledge. They were these all knowing vessels that would pour out their knowledge and if you stopped up all the holes in your brain, you'd be able to keep some of that knowledge. If we continue to extrapolate that metaphor, I think we'll get into "yuck" factor, so I'll stop. But teachers were there to provide knowledge and somehow students were able to hold on to this information long enough to blurt it all out on to a test. I don't know when John A. McDonald was born, but I can find out online.
So the shift for me began with the idea, that if all of this information is out there, why don't I teach my students to find it? Why do I search for it, synthesize it, and break it into bite size pieces for my students? What do they learn when I do this? Do they learn when I do this? No, they don't. They don't remember the information when I effectively spoon feed it to them.
My students are capable of finding this information themselves. They are required by the end of the grade to be able to synthesize information, so let's teach them to do it, instead of doing it for them.
I want them to explore, discover, challenge, explain and ask questions. I want them to think beyond basics and think deeper and harder about what they are reading and writing, what they are viewing and representing, and by asking questions, I hope they will be able to challenge themselves.
