Journal #4: "Create, Collaborate, Communicate..."

By: Chris Riedel

“Create, Collaborate, Communicate…” is an article that talks about trying to integrate the use of more technology into the teaching profession. The author, Chris Riedel, is a retired district CIO and is “an emerging technology evangelist.” He speaks about how low education is ranked according to its level of IT intensiveness, and says that we as educators need to change our curriculum to incorporate these students’ 21st century skills. According to Riedel “we are doing our students a disservice” by not using the technological tools they are so used to outside of school because these are the things that employers look for. The article goes on to name and explain 16 things educators need to do to prepare young learners to be the “leaders of tomorrow.” Some examples of these things are “Hug a Geek” – talk with someone who is technologically skilled and use their expertise for use in your classroom; “Start Collaborating” – use a program like GoogleDocs so that students can collaborate on one shared document; and “Discover Social Bookmarking” – students can share information and different websites by “tagging” them on one specific site to share with friends.

Q1: Should we include more technology into our lesson plans and curriculum?
A1: I think that is it definitely a good idea to use more technology in our lesson plans, but to put it in the curriculum and require that use is a bad idea. Not all teachers work well with technology and not all students necessarily learn well with technology, so we shouldn’t force something on them. Riedel mentions that we are doing students a “disservice” by not including more technology because that is what employers look for. In my opinion, we as educators are not and should not be required to assist students develop what an employer wants. We are there to educate these students and help them develop their minds, not a lot of technological skills. If they want or need those skills, they are offered as an elective course in secondary school or as college courses.

Q2: Is using a tool such as social bookmarking really a good way to keep students more engaged in what they’re learning?
A2: Yes and no. Yes, because it could be helpful for students to share websites with good information, especially when doing projects. However, once these bookmarks are taken care of, students would have the ability to move on to bookmarking other sites such as Myspace or Facebook; website that have no relation to the assignment and could quite possibly get them into trouble. These are things that we as educators are watching out for with our students, not encouraging them to do.

Riedel, C (2009, January). “Create, Collaborate, Communicate: Empowering Students With 21st Century Skills.” T-H-E Journal, Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23872_1