The readings from this first week have made me reflect upon the fact that as educators, we cannot keep using the same pedagogical methods and strategies that we have used over the past 100 years to teach K-12 students. If we continue to do so, we would not be taking advantage of the most recent instructional technologies, but most importantly, students will not get well prepared in using efficiently those technologies in their advanced academic studies or even in their professional lives.
Instead of being passive recipients of information, new millennium students should acquire the ability and skills to collectively seek, sieve and synthesize the information (Dede, 2005). Being digital natives, K-12 students are already familiar with the technology that is all around us, they have make technology part of their daily lives. As such, they know how to use Web 2.0 technologies for creation and communication purposes. Unfortunately most educators are not digital natives and are still reluctant to integrate new technologies as part of their instruction, partly because they really don’t know how to do it. This has to change. We need educators that promote an education that is interactive, engaging and challenging though the use of these new technological tools (Oblinger, 2008).
References:
Dede, C. (2005). Planning for neomillennial learning styles. Educause Quarterly, 28(1)
Oblinger, D. G. (2008). Growing up with Google: What it means to education. Becta: Emerging technologies for learning, 3, 10-29.
