Edtech, will you marry me? Proposal from a Teacher

I think I am finally ready to take the next step in my relationship with Ed!

Ed Tech, Please consider this marriage proposal from me, a teacher….

And not just me…me kids really need that direct ‘Tech’ influence in their lives. More and more I realise that I just can’t do it all on my own anymore in this 21st Century.

I’d actually like to create a beautiful marriage between you and me, and have you move in with me, right into my classroom!  I am finally ready for you to play a safe and meaningful role in the lives myself and the kids.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Am I really ready for this? What we have is already great, and if I accept you fully into my life, and teaching practice, I have to accept you for the good and the bad.Am I ready for that?

Relationships are not always rosy. I also am fully aware of your manipulative nature at times…Your shiny advertisements, phishing schemes, data mining, and barrage of facebook friends, selling you false dreams and making life feel that it is all fun and video games… I know how you  use these tools to try and bring the kids to your side, and entice them away from higher order thinking processes, preventing students from turning data and information into real knowledge and understanding. This just makes my partnership with you extra challenging, and a lot of extra work.

But I realise that it is well worth it for the kids.

This is also a compromise for you too, however. You must accept the fact, that I already have a very deep and meaningful relationship with the Curriculum. We’ve been together for a long time. We practically even finish each other’s sentences. It provides stability for myself and the kids. I can’t ever leave my beloved curriculum. You are just going to have to get used to the fact that it will not be going anywhere, when and if we actually make this relationship official!

I also need you to know about SIPSA, our  School Improvement Plan. This is guilty pleasure reading, that keeps me focused on why I need you, and why you need me. This is my guide to keep me on track as to how you are to be used in my classroom. This will help guide our new relationship and keep us on track when we encounter rough bumps on the road.

However, sometimes, the road can get too bumpy to manage. If we do run into too much trouble, our ICT and tech consultants at the Board are excellent Relationship Counsellors. I am very committed to this relationship working out!

I know you are not new, you have been in my life for quite some time now, even visiting my classroom from time to time,  whether it be for a video, or for a ‘computer period’. Because otherwise, we have not developed that long-term, meaningful partnership yet. These things really do take time. It will take time for me to open up enough to allow you fully enter into my life as an educator, and lives of my students.

I will have to get used to the emotional ‘messes’ and frustrations you leave us, and your untrustworthy nature at times. I will still  try to make it work for the kids.  Ed-T. (Ed-Tech), I will do my best to infuse and integrate you into the learning that will take place in my classroom.

First, I would like to set some ground rules:

1. We must be equitable. There are many students who won’t have their own devices to bring to school, whether their parents won’t let them (completely understandable!), whether there is not enough money for one, or whether there are 4 kids in the house and only one device to share…or many other possible reasons! So I will do my best to make sure that if I am inviting everyone to bring their own devices, that I won’t exclude you from those students, and exclude them from learning with a device in my classroom.

2. Just because you will become a key communication tool in the classroom with parents, you will  absolutely NOT replace the phone calls, and real-time person-to-person sharing and communication that is so essential to the healthy growth and development of the children.

With that having been said..  please don’t get all full of yourself now…just because you are shiny and new, and seem to be wearing an iPad case this year, this does not mean that you will be the entire focus. Remember, you are just a tool. I will not let you intimidate me as I embark on this journey of understanding  of you and how you will work with my students!

Many students know you very well, and think that they have a good friend in you…after all, you have provided them will so many ‘facebook’ friends, and free ‘kick’s, and Instagram photos to name a few. But I will show them the realities, and teach them how to be good Digital Citizens.

I will also stay committed to you. I will engage in my own self-directed PD, and make connections with others just like me. And we will work it out together for the sake of the kids.

I will make sure that although my students may be so-called technology experts, they are not experts at understanding the entire digital/online world, and its implications for learning. I will make sure that I use real life Human connections to make sure that they are effectively engaging in the learning process.

I just know that we can make a big impact together, and raise a new generation of tech-literate students who will be able to go out and make the world a better place with the knowledge that only we together can harness for them!

Please follow Ed T on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Ed_T_echnology

Deborah McCallum

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