I’ve been hearing about the “paperless” office (and, by extension, paperless school) for nearly 40 years. Doug even talks about it in his recent The Next Big Thing(s) post.
To which I say, HA!
Here’s the reality: we’re using more paper. Vast quantities of more.
Students do react differently to paper assignments, at least in my district. There is a sense of responsibility that isn’t there when the assignment is purely digital. But, I believe the cause is more of a “this is how we’ve always done it”. For the most part, students are conditioned to receive assignments and supplemental materials as physical copies. It’s the only thing they’ve every known.
In a 21st-century teaching world that is in a constant state of change, we find ourselves as educators trying to find value in everything we do. Maximizing curriculum integration is key in an environment with a packed curriculum and limited time for teachers to extend their learning.An area that deserves particular attention is the Arts,…
Recent technological advances have affected many areas of our lives: the way we communicate, collaborate, learn, and, of course, teach. Along with that, those advances necessitated an expansion of our vocabulary, producing definitions such as digital natives, digital immigrants, and, the topic of this post — “21st-century teacher.” Source: 15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher…
The growth of this kind of stubborn ignorance in the midst of the Information Age cannot be explained away as merely the result of rank ignorance. Many of the people who campaign against established knowledge are otherwise adept and successful in their daily lives. In some ways, it is all worse than ignorance: it is unfounded arrogance,…
At what point does being an engaged, passionate, employee crossover into accepting less value for your time and efforts than you should? At what point is it actually detrimental to your health, life, and career? I don’t know that I have an answer for that. The answer is probably something personal, and different, for each…
The “Best Footprint Forward” project explored what children know about digital footprints. Focus groups were made up of 33 children aged 10-12 years from three schools in regional NSW. Analysis of the focus groups reveals children have strategies to keep safe online, but they need further guidance on how to build a positive digital footprint….
I received a Christmas gift in fourth grade that profoundly impacted my career path and thus the rest of my life. That gift was a VTech PowerPad Plus “pre-computer.” While just a toy, the PowerPad line of products from the late 1980s and early 1990s were functioning computers that featured, among a handful of educational…
