by Shelly Blake-Plock
Your students turn in all of their work electronically. You grade everything on your Tablet PC. All of your lectures are supported by PowerPoints. You haven't been in the copy room in months. You are a completely paperless teacher.
So what?
As we've discussed on this blog since the very beginning, being paperless is not just a matter of using no paper. It's a matter of bringing the live and dynamic content of the world into your classroom in real time and connecting your student's voices to the conversation of the world.
It's not enough to be "paperless". You've got to be connected. The connection is the key.
Wood: tenon
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The tenons, as I said yesterday, go into the mortise like a masculine
‘plug’ into a ‘feminine’ socket — were you thinking sex? Maybe I was
thinking electri...
I completely agree. I would also add what may be an obvious point - it's also about the content. We can give our children access to computers and let them surf the Internet, but we also need to ensure they get the most out of the web in the most productive way.
ReplyDeleteAnd real connections have no censors (filters)...@K5 Learning...it is very dangerous to think we have the power or the right to determine what "the most" is for anyone or what is "productive" and what isn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm putting together a list of the top 100 high school/secondary school teacher blogs and I was wondering if I could interview you via e-mail to include more information in my article. Please e-mail me at alexisbrett@gmail.com and include the title of your blog in the e-mail, thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteI agree with this notion of "connection." It's absolutely necessary. I admit that I'm not doing enough of it, partially because I am shy and partly because I want to protect the community I have in my classroom.
ReplyDelete@Norman Constantine - thanks for your insight. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by we don't have the right or power to determine what the most or productive is for our kids? With connectivity comes content - so if we give them one, we have to provide the other? Or am I wrong? Did I completely misunderstand your point?
ReplyDeleteIn addition to being "paperless" on our work, we should also adapt the eco-friendly way of working. Even in my home office space in DC, I always tell my colleagues on our meeting via online conferencing that we should embrace that lifestyle, to ensure that we can save more money for the company. There is one time that we've been called by our boss to attend the meeting at our Dulles, VA office space headquarters to further talk about the proposal.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we cannot avoid being paperless at our office, we can still have environment-friendly offices by regularly cleaning the rooms like the meeting rooms and other rooms as well. Just like what we always do with our office space (Atlanta and Charlotte, NC). We must also be aware that living a greener lifestyle can be a big help in helping the environment.
ReplyDelete