Blog Assignment # 12

BLOG POST

Watch the following video: "Community Trumps Content" By Jeff Utecht

After you have watched this video write a substantial blog about your thoughts on how students are more technologically literate now. The Education system needs to keep up with modern technology in order to keep up with the students. Also tell me something about Jeff Utecht.

This video is Jeff Utecht speaking at a teacher conference. Jeff is a International Educator and a Educational Technology Consultant. He is currently based in Bangkok Thailand.

Jeff begins his speech by discussing a revolution that is going to happen and how it is going to come from the students. Students that are being surpressed by the lack of technology in classroom. He even makes it funny by saying (which is so true) that this will happen through FaceBook. Which if you have watched the news lately you will know how true that is because Egypt is a perfect example of that concept. The students today are so technologically literate because that is all they have ever known.

He goes on to discuss when computers were invented and I can so relate to this. When I was growing up, we did not have cell phones and computers were used to type papers and play basic games. Not today though. I have two children who know about cell phones, the internet and gaming devices that have almost life like characters. They are growing up in a world like Jeff said that they have always been connected. If they need to talk to anyone they are always avaiable, whether it is by cell phone, text messages, instant message or some sort of social media. They also have the ablitity to know what is going on in the WORLD, not just their immediate world, at anytime.

Students have so many advancements now and these advancements are not being implemented in the school system. In schools teachers are still living in what students believe is the "Stone Age". Teachers are still using chalk boards and books. Students have more access to media and learning tools in the home. They can go home and with a click of a button study a subject from their class in depth more than the outdated book sitting in front of them at school.

We are going to loose students in trying to keep them in the "Stone Age" to technology because they are light years ahead of us already. We are also doing them an injustice by not bringing technology to the classroom. They are our future and their future is nothing but technology. Future teachers are even receiving degrees in Educational Technology today.

In my opinion, yes, students may eventually come in and try to take over the school system and bring it around to more technologically literate system but good luck to them. The problem is not only teachers being technologically illiterate but the schools system cannot keep up. School buildings are to old and outdated that they are not capable of holding all it takes to bring technology to classroom. (Like all the cables and wires it takes to make computers run) Also school systems are struggling financially so bad that they are just grateful to not loose teachers to budget cuts, so where is the money going to come from to provide technology? How can we as the future generation of teachers make these changes? What is it going to take to start a teacher revolution before the students beat us to it?

I really enjoyed this video. It is well worth your time to watch. Jeff has a very good point. Now we just need to find a way to bring school systems around to being technologically literate and keep up with our students. Students are growing and changing as fast as the world of technology. They deserve nothing but the best and they look at us, the Educators, to do that for them.


Note: I found this video on Twitter a while back. I really enjoyed it and even re-tweeted it and also put it on my FaceBook account for others to see. I found this tweet originally from Stephen Akins @akins14. Thank you Stephen for the great and inspiring tweet and thanks Dr. Strange for getting me into Twitter. I never thought I would be a twitter person but now I am and I like it just as much as Facebook!