2020

After watching Karl Fisch's video, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7281108124087435381, I found myself wondering how accurate some of his predictions might be. It would be quite exciting to be a part of such global changes in education and technology.

As Mr. Fisch points out, technology alone will grow at an exponential rate. Hopefully all children around the world will own their own computer and the most successful technology companies will continue to be philanthropic. I do believe we will be getting better at how we record and store what's important to us and products like the Gcam (Google combination of audio and video) to create "Gcasts" are inevitable.

Using technology advancements for the education of our world's children will have to be a priority for the global leaders. Connecting all children through a global "learning exhibition system", creating free online high school/university content and schools where rigid schedules and bells are obsolete would be a huge jump for our educational systems. We can't rely on the status quo to prepare our students for what they will face when they graduate. If we do, it will be a great disservice to them.

Certainly our environment will affect major changes in the next decade or two. Mr. Fisch believes solar power will be the answer to our energy dilemma and I'm not sure if that will be the case. Whatever the solution, our energy sources will drive new technologies and all of our students will need to learn about them as we progress into the 21st century.

I believe my classroom is already leaning toward the classroom of the future. Using a content management system has already given students 24-hour access to courses and exposure to technologies they may use after graduation. I hope to continue to add new technologies and tools to my courses that allow for improved collaboration and to eventually incorporate "sister" classrooms from other continents to form a global learning community.

Being a teacher in the next few decades will change considerably. As courses become paperless and content is shared among fellow teachers, a collaborative environment will be the norm. Teachers will take on more of a facilitator role and observe their students develop a higher level of inquiry. Also, teachers will be held to a higher standard as the years progress and will need to demonstrate their desire for lifelong learning through continued professional development and technology training. Only the best and brightest will become teachers in this ever-changing world of education for the complacent types will just not suffice anymore.

Creation and Collaborating

I was impressed with the Zoho Notebook and will be recommendation its use to students when collaborating on computer program design in my courses. The tool is easy to use and allows for all kinds of creative expression from text to inclusion of pictures and videos. Collaboration with fellow students is also easy and as changes are made to content, it is updated to all in the group. I think high school students will find this software fun as well as useful.

Paperless Classes

Last year, for the first time, five of my six classes went paperless. Since I teach in a computer lab, every student has access to a computer during the class and every student has their own student folder available to them on the school server. Each student also has a district Moodle account so the resources were all there for us. It took nearly most of the prior summer to organize the hundreds of documents that were uploaded to Moodle, but once the school year started I couldn't have been happier.

Instead of having to get copies made and organize mountains of papers during that first week of school, my desk was clean. Instead of having to worry about getting a handout to an absent student when he returned, I didn't give it a thought. Instead of organizing trays and folders to receive students' work throughout the day, I spent my time working with the students on their projects.

For me, going paperless was liberating. And my students really seem to like it as well. Instead of carrying/organizing a cumbersome notebook, they have organized all of their handouts (downloaded from Moodle) and notes (taken on their computers during class) in their student folder on the school computer. They take tests and quizzes on Moodle and get an instant grade as soon as they hit the "submit" button. They hand in all programming assignments on Moodle and like the fact that they can do so from home at anytime day or night. Their grades are easy to view on Moodle and they particularly like the forums that are set up to discuss class topics.

It even has come in handy with regard to classroom management. When the class is getting off task or noisy, we set up a chat on Moodle and no one is allowed to speak out loud. All discussions of a topic are made in an instant-message-like environment and it really helps to get them focused and encourage participation.

In the end, going paperless and using a content-delivery system such as Moodle has given me a lot more time to spend with the students and less time being a "paper shuffler" and "organizer freak." And now with new collaborative tools learned this summer, there is so much more I can add to this environment that will benefit both myself and my tech-loving students.

Big Shifts

There are many shifts that teachers are going to have to face in this new age of the Read/Write Web. Many will affect my classroom and my mindset about how I teach, but one is particularly important to the content I teach.

As a computer science teacher I teach different programming languages using different software and even various computer hardware. Each year I find myself faced with software upgrades that alter how students will be able to access their work or new security issues that force me to remove content taught in previous years, Java version upgrades that change the content of a course and even AP course requirements. Keeping up with the changes is a challenging process. But in the eyes of the old paradigm where textbooks are the backbone of a course, I find these changes pale in comparison with the challenge of finding/offering my students updated textbooks as primary resources. Textbooks in this area of study have a half-life of about six months and no reasonable school district will allow new textbook purchases every year.

The "big shift" that I am currently faced with is to create an open-source-type classroom in which everyone contributes to a dynamic curriculum that considers all the changes and relishes in the discovery of them. The core objectives will remain the same but as programming languages change and move to more Web-based tools themselves, my students and I can learn about them together. And as I am learning new collaborative tools this summer, I'm finding that this shift won't be as difficult as I might have initially thought. Whew.

Skype

As educators in a new technological world, we are going to have to get out of our "comfort zone." The use of new communications tools and the potential for them to connect our students to others in similar courses across town and around the globe cannot be ignored. As Wesley A. Fryer states, (http://www.wtvi.com/TEKS/05_06_articles/skype-in-the-classroom.html) "Skype is an example of a potentially “disruptive” educational technology tool because it can fundamentally change the teaching and learning environment . . . this means increasing student achievement, while simultaneously encouraging students as well as teachers to engage in worthwhile and creative tasks. Twenty-first century educators should aspire for nothing less."

Students will be using these technologies at work in the near future and preparing them for this is also important. My high school, in fact, is installing VoIP technologies in every classroom in our district this summer and all employees will be required to use them. As Fryer points out, schools are "using wiring already installed for campus local area networks and Internet access. VoIP systems can prove to be more flexible and less costly than traditional phone lines for organizations of all sizes, including schools. In the case of VoIP software like Skype, the additional cost to install and use the software to make Internet-based phone calls is zero. Bandwidth, or Internet connection capacity, is utilized when Skype / VoIP calls are made, but the amount of bandwidth used for audio-only connections is much less compared to most videoconference connections which include both video and audio." It's an exciting world we live in!

Another photo from Flickr

Instead of directly sending a photo to my blog, I saved one from Flickr onto my computer and than was able to add the image here, also pretty easy! I can see that adding photos for my students to their blogs could really add another dimension to their writings and create an added interest.

Image Citation: Marburger Schoss (2006, March 28). Retrieved July 14, 2007 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dusi_bbg/119345414/in/photostream/.

Elisabethkirche Marburg on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Elisabethkirche Marburg on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Lots of Flickr photos and easy to share. This one is picture of church near my daughter's apartment in Marburg, Germany and was able to "blog it" easily. Wow!