What Did you Create Today

There is a message from Jamie Casup's Keynote address at this years NYSCATE Conference that continues to resonate with us.  It is is a variation of a message many of us have been haranguing our own children with for years (usually when they have parked themselves in front of the TV or a video game for too long).  That message is that we need to move from being consumers of information and consumers of entertainment, to be creators of content and leaders in this world of technology. Advances in Technology for the last 30 years have put devices in the hands of more people than ever.  In fact, a"Cisco report says number of smartphones, tablets, laptops and internet-capable phones will exceed number of humans in 2013" enabling more people to consume more media than ever before.  If we are going to succeed in preparing our students to be "College and Career Ready," we need to teach them (and model for them) how to use this technology to create content and be true leaders with technology.

This explosion in technological advances that has created an ease of media consumption has also created devices and software tools that enable everyday people to be published authors, software developers, web-masters, video directors and more, putting their ideas and creations out there for world to see (and to buy).  As educators, we need to not only embrace the use of these tools in the classroom, but use them in a way that puts the students as creators of unique and meaningful content.  As tech coaches, we have the privilege of working with many talented teachers who want to use more technology or use it more effectively in the classroom.  Many of them are just beginning with using these tools such as Edmodo, Google Apps for Education, and Screencast-O-Matic. The first step in using these tools is for teachers to become more familiar with using them, learning how to efficiently use them in the classroom, and to better engage students in each lesson.  The next step is allow students to create their own content and be leaders of their own Learning.  Free tools like Google Sites, Voki, WeVideo, Animoto, and Pixton make it easy for teachers to turn a simple class project into opportunities for students to truly be creators and collaborators.

When we speak of College and Career Ready, we need to be mindful of what kind of careers we are preparing students for.  The Department Of Labor has determined that 65% of the jobs that our grade school children will have when they graduate haven't been created yet, so what is the career/job that we are preparing them for?  In order for students to be successful, they need to have solid set of academic skills, as well as problem solving and teamwork skills, but they also need to know how to be producers using digital tools. Over this same time period of major growth in technology, there has been a 49% increase in the number of small businesses.  Many of our students will be the architects of not only their own job, but their own business!  This will only happen if we move our trend from traditional methods of teaching, through the paradigm of teachers using technology to create lessons, to the future where students are actively engaged in using technology to create and not merely consume.