Exhausted

The first day of school is over. I'm holding on to optimism for at least a couple more days. I am tired.

I don't know how anyone can teach without having the students active and involved. Today was a day of me standing in front of the class, telling them things they need to know. I think I need to find a different way to do it next year. I know that there is no way I could stand in front and tell the students what they need to know all semester long. I need them to take an active part in their learning. I need them to bear a little of the burden. Tomorrow I'll start giving them the opportunity.

Motivation, motivation, motivation, sir.

Get some, got some, good, huah!
          -something we said back in my Air Force days-

Ten days ago I completed a 111 mile bike race. I didn't win. I didn't even go very fast. But, I did finish. Nobody paid me to do the race and I don't think anyone judged me or scored my performance (at least I hope not). I had no reason at all to do the race, other than I wanted to do the race.

This, I think, is what we call intrinsic motivation: doing something because you like doing that thing. I see it occassionally in my photography classes. There are students who love to take pictures and the will go out and take pictures regardless of what I assign. I see it in my English classes. Students with their noses buried in books. Occasional poets in the making writing from cover to cover in their spiral notebooks. Performers entertaining the class at the wrong time. Artists doodling when I'm lecturing. Etc.

One of my biggest goals this year is to somehow influence students to want to do what I want them to do. Not for the grade. Not for the experience. Not to prepare for college. Just to do it.

I'm just trying to remember the last time someone made me want to do something that I didn't want to do, and how they did it.

When I close my eyes, I see weeds.

When I close my eyes, I see weeds. Not metaphorical weeds. Not biblically allusioned weeds. Actual freakin weeds.

Despite our sworn promises never to do so again, my wife and I recently purchased a new home, sans yard. So, with apparently nothing better to do, I woke up this morning at 7:00 and headed straight out into the yard. For six long hours (remember, I'm a school teacher and have soft hands) I fought a valiant battle against the weeds in the yard. I'm proud to say that some of them were quite a bit taller than me and I still took them down! Six hours was enough. There's still some weeds in the yard, but six hours did me in.

Now, when I close my eyes, I still see weeds. When my wife said the blessing over lunch, all I saw was weeds. Tonight, when I finally close my eyes to go to sleep, I imagine that I'll probably still see weeds.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, for the last few weeks I've been thinking an aweful lot about educational technology. I've been reading books, reading blogs, playing with computers, and making plans for the coming school. And lately, when I close my eyes, when I lay down for bed, I think a lot about educational technology.

Hopefully all these thoughts, both conscious and unconscious are doing some good.

What is technology? Part III

A good 48 hours later and I'm still very comfortable with my definition for technology. But, I want to make sure that I'm clear on one particular part. In my ramblings I mentioned quite a few things that might not qualify as technology for our students. I did not mean in any way that we didn't need to teach those things to our students.

Again with the pencil analogy: no one will argue about whether or not a pencil is technology (and by that I mean that of course some one will argue about whether or not a pencil is technology, but that someone is an idiot), but one of the first things that students learn in school is how to correctly use a pencil. Who knows how many hours students spend with lined paper diligently tracing, crafting, and creating lines and letters with this new tool.

We need to be just as careful and diligent with the teaching of every tool that we use. I'm sick of hearing that students already know how to use the internet, that they know more about computers than their teachers do, they they grew up with this stuff. The fact of the matter is that they do not know how to use the internet, they do not know how to use search engines, they barely even know how to use their cell phones. We still need to set them down with whatever lined paper is appropriate and teach them to use the tools necessary to utilize the technology that will make them the learners of today and the leaders of tomorrow.

...and if you are one of those teachers that claims that students know more about your computer than you do, I seriously hope that you are either being humble, or are prepared to work as hard and fast as possible to get back to the level where you can be a teacher for the students of today.

What is technology--My answer

I wish I could find the reference that got me onto this line of thinking, but I really tried to decide for myself what technology was without asking my friend Google for help and by the time I came up with a definition that I was comfortable with, and then decided that I stole it from someone else, I couldn't figure out who I stole it from. So, here it is:

Technology is anything that was invented after you were.

This means many things, but possibly the most important is that things that you probably consider advances in technology, your students consider everyday and mundane. Think about it, I have incoming 9th graders who have no conscious memory of life before the internet. To me the internet is absolutely amazing, to my new students, the internet is pencil and paper.

I myself am a pretty young dude and I have a serious chuckle every time I see one of my talented coworkers mumbling over the copy machine and reminiscing about the smell of mimeograph paper (or is it ink? that's the point, I really don't know). A copy machine is no where near technology to me. It's a pencil and paper. I never knew life without it.

I'm starting to worry myself the more I think about this. CD's are not technology, computers are not technology, search engines, email, chat rooms, video games...nope. Pencils? Still nope.

So what does qualify? That's a question for another day.

What is technology?

The other day I had a little discussion with our school's technology integration specialist. We were trying to decide what actually constitutes technology. I think that I've come up with a definition that I can live with, but what do you think? What is technology for you? Stay away from wikipedia or dictionary.com and think this one through for a minute. I'll tell you what I think in a day or so!