PBS Video

4 Key Ideas From the PBS Video
1.  "If we teach today's students as we did yesterday's, we are robbing them of tomorrow."
     — John Dewey

2.  Two emerging education systems - one for the regular student where the standard curriculum is taught for service jobs and one for the wealthy who learn to apply and problem solve and innovate which will clear the path for success in a global economy

3.  The technology itself is not the be all and end all.  It is a tool to be used when it best suits the situation.
     I have been thinking a lot lately about how to get kids talking about their reading books.  My class reads an assigned genre and a free choice book each month.  While the assigned genre has guidelines for demonstrating understanding, the free choice book does not.  I'd like to find a way for kids to have reading partners - kids who read the same book and have a conversation with each other about the story elements, the story, connections, vocabulary, etc.  I'm thinking it could be done by pairing up kids on the same reading level - maybe using NWEA data or NECAP data as a preliminary starting point.  Then maybe creating a menu of options for kids to demonstrate their relationship with the story/author. Perhaps some of the choices could be technology related.
     One worry I have with this is that my fifth graders, while technologically savy in many ways, don't have a skill set that allows them to be independent with the technology.  Many students have a limited exposure to word processing, file management, or even keyboarding.  In the past, the tech coordinator had created a set of mini-assignments that helped kids learn the skills necessary to navigate a word processing program.  Something like this would be very helpful.  While we want technology to be authentic, kids have to start somewhere.  There needs to be more instruction from someone other than the classroom teacher.  While I agree technology should be seemlessly integrated, in practice we are not there.  With 5 preps a day, I don't know where to put designing new curriculum to teach tech skills.  There will have to be more support than there is now. I'm thinking that maybe the technology coordinator could provide a series of mini-lessons as we begin exploring a new application or maybe work as an extra set of hands in the classroom when beginning new applications.  I realize the kids will become the experts and know many things I don't, but I also know that it takes time to develop that expertise and at the moment, it time I'm struggling to find.



4.  The best uses of technology build on the standards - if done well, assessment is part of the process - the success can't happen if the standards aren't met or the knowledge isn't there.

5.  Schools are set up for the "assembly line" society and economy.