(Shelly Blake-Plock, from "Why Teachers Should Blog", teachpaperless blogspot.com)
I've been trying to overcome my resistance to using e-tools to teach. It is ever so much more comfortable to do what one knows and does well. Besides, technology is changing the way we communicate so swiftly, that I find it difficult to keep up. I no more than learn to use (not master) Blackboard, then I have to learn online portfolios. What about Facebook, texting, Google docs, blogs, Twitter, Animoto, Wikis, podcasts, Youtube and, as I learned last night, Google Wave? We lament the decline of writing skills and the lack of interest in learning them as our students' minds wander off into the digital world. We have to go there. That's where our students are and that is where they are writing and reading, debating the world and expressing their thoughts and feelings.
Peter Elbow claims that "voice empowers individuals to act in the world" and that voice is "the individual identity of the writer working in a community" (Burnham, "Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory, Theory/Practice"). Burnham cites Thomas Merton who speaks of the purpose of education as teaching students to define themselves "authentically and spontaneously in relation" to the world. Tie this to blogging, to "teaching yourself what you think."
I think of how Sarah Palin influences Senate and Congressional elections with her shoot-from- the-hip blog. I think of the Muslim cab driver stabbed by a drunk inflamed with rage by irate discussions about where a mosque/cultural center should be built in NYC. And what about the daily rants regarding immigration? Words matter. Voices matter. They are being expressed and heard, not in letters to the editor, not in reasoned essays in respected magazines, but on twitter, blogs, Youtube, wikis and viewed on the internet accessible now from your phone. It is uncomfortable to have to master the tools of the digital age, but it is a matter of necessity. Along with teaching reasoned argumentation, it is urgent that we do so. We cannot afford to slide into our comfort zones while democracy slips away.
With all of this in mind, I will struggle to learn to use e-tools to teach my students. If Sarah can do it, I know I can. So can you. Add one e-tool each semester. You can start by checking out "11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year" by Richard Byrne at freetech4teachers.com. And ask for help when you need it. Bet your students can assist you!
