Dear Grandpa,
I am very happy to let you know that I am near completion of my second Master’s degree. My degree is in education, concentrating more on educational technology this time. I know. I know, Grandpa, you always say that in our day people have too many degrees and too little common sense and basic knowledge. I’m hoping this is not the case for me; and know I have many colleagues who share my sentiments. Although my area of study may seem so foreign to you, it is actually very much a continuation of our discussion on the education process in your time and mine.
I think about you having been a teacher of twelve to fifteen students of many levels in one classroom, and how you were challenged to keep them engaged at their level(s) and gaining knowledge as much knowledge as possible. I just read an article recently by Rodger Bybee; he wrote in the year 2000 that “technological literacy of all citizens will become a national imperative and an educational goal.” We are very far from just learning the 3-R’s of yesterday; although the similarities in learning the 3-R’s and technology lie in that they are all skills for life. Technology is as essential today as the 3-R’s still are. This is what is also called the difference between “schooling and lifelong learning.”
The small classroom you taught in for 15 years grandpa is in some ways parallel to the internet in that students at various stages of learning and awareness have access to those with different knowledge and information. But , of course, multiply that knowledge and awareness by millions and millions (to include people from all over the world) and that is the knowledge that students have access to in our day and age, on any given day. Grandpa the world is very much expanding but also a much smaller place, as a class in your old hometown today could be communicating with, and learning from, children in Australia, and their teacher could be learning from the Australian teacher, too.
I also reflect on the sense of isolation you felt and the responsibility of being, in many ways, the sole provider of information to students. Nowadays imparting knowledge is seen as an essential very small part of learning. When I talk to you about attending conferences and training, you say, “We did not have all of that available to us and we just taught what we knew and knew what we taught.” I agree in some that teachers can be the limit to students’ knowledge but I want to be part of process in expanding teachers knowledge and skills. So my job is to help teachers feel more confident and capable at using more resources, especially, technology as a tool to help their students be better educated and better consumers of information.
So, grandpa, the main theme in my studies is professional development for teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms. This will, hopefully, decrease their sense of isolation, increase their sense of collaboration with one another, provide new avenues for interactions between student, between teachers, and between students and teachers. I think this will create a dynamic learning environment that is not a “one-size-fits-all” classroom.
I understand that there were many thinkers of your time discussing learning in context, such as Vygotsky and others. However, it probably wasn’t easy for you to learn about this then, as you know now, unless your library or church happened to carry the books. Things are different now; we don’t seek specific titles or authors; we can seek keywords or subjects and have access to 1000s of articles and books. We don’t have to know what we’re searching for even. Therefore, students can have an interest for the day or a topic of choice and find out more than they could imagine they didn’t know. Of course this might sound overwhelming to you asking, “How do I channel the knowledge of students in such an environment?” I agree this is the job of a good teacher to channel students’ energy, and to focus their attention on specific topics, and increase their breadth and depth of learning. You would do this well grandpa, if you had to do it today.
Grandpa, remember when I first taught you how to read my emails, then how to write and send them. You hesitated at first, and were unsure; then it became easy for you, and even fun for you to do a few internet searches, and to read your newspaper online. One of my main goals is to teach teachers in non-threatening and fun ways, so that they can go into the classrooms and also impart to their students that “learning is fun.”
I’m glad we are able to have this email exchange; hopefully, we will be able to move to “blogs”, where someone puts an idea down and different people sign on to reflect on it. If you want we could chat, or have like an email dialogue, if my typing can keep up with yours J In the future, I might send you something called a podcast, where you can hear one of my lessons for teachers. Yes, you can share it with your friends, and brag about your grandson who turned out just like you. For now, grandpa, the fact that you are reading this email and can connect to the links of the articles if you wanted to, makes me happy. Because I know you are still the best kind of teacher; the teacher who always seeks new knowledge and want s to learn more. Thank you for being my lifelong teacher, and for channeling me in the right direction.
Yours truly,
Ghassan
In this email to grandpa, I was hoping to describe to him my interest in preparing teachers to integrate information and communication technology into their teaching and learning environments. I was expressing to him my hopes that teachers improve their confidence in using technology and gaining better skills at not just imparting knowledge, but preparing students to be consumers of information, as well as gaining critical thinking skills. I see the similarities in past times and today; i.e. the need for more staggered learning plans, and individualized or, at least, varied learning for students. My hope is to prepare teachers to engage their students in dynamic learning environments, in which neither teacher nor student feels isolated. Although, those of my grandfather’s generation perceive technology as “a means of isolation;” my hope is that he as well as today’s teachers see the many means for connectivity and communication. I believe my reading selections and blog entries reflect these concepts and convictions.
I have read some wonderful papers during this course that shaped my thoughts and helped me reflect upon my practices and beliefs. Some of these papers are:
Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age (Resnick, 2002); Information Age Mindset (Frand, 2000); Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (Dwayer, 1989 ); Digital Natives and Digital Immigrant (Prenski, 2001); Designing Staff Development Plans for the Information Age (McKenzie, 1991); Engage Me or Enrage Me (Prensky, Marc, 2005); Is Education 1.0 ready for Web 2.0 students (John, 2007 ).
