That is putting it lightly for the rest of us. The ones trying to plan ahead. The ones attempting desperately to be proactive and NOT reactive in this deluge of change that approaches our shores. No matter what defenses we may put up, no matter what deceits we can whisper to ourselves at night, change is coming and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it.
There are two types of people in this world. The ones that Do and the ones that Do Not. We are at that point now where we must realize we have asked so much of our teachers already. Compared to the educators of the 1780's our teachers now have a host of responsibilities thrust upon their plates. Keep this in mind as you read my words... In the past 220 plus years of education our nation has provided its students, only ONE constant has remained. The time our teachers have our students has not increased an hour once. Keep that in mind as your eyes continue to scan my words.
Looking back to 1776 and the great Revolution that birthed our nation, the only thing that changed is the scope of responsibility of our teachers. Back in the late 1700's our teachers only had to show our children how to read and write. Two subject areas and that was it. Nothing more and nothing less. Now, in 2012, our teachers and staff in the USA are responsible for feeding our children 2/3 of their daily meals, ensuring they have adequate heat in winter, and air conditioning in warmer months. They are responsible for bully control, sexual education, substance abuse, drivers education, the sciences, the math field, the social studies of the world, and the psychology of whole-body self; they must teach obesity and eating disorders, information technology issues, social media, and the list only continues to grow with each passing legislative session. In a nutshell our teachers ensure the proper dosage of academic, social, psychological, and medical needs is met on a daily basis. The sad reality is that our educators are raising our children whether we like it or not.
I, for one, would like to be the one to say when is enough going to be enough? Sadly I cannot though. It is not my place to. For one, I am not a teacher. I do not instruct our children and I do not have the honor of calling them my own, this league of extraordinary individuals. Oh, how I wish I was though. The music we could make if I was...
However, I CAN make a statement to those who would hear me. Those beyond the four walls of education. Those who may gleam some hint of information from all of this. This journey we are on, the dynamic digital landscape as I so aptly put it. It started with a simple web browser and now has morphed into so much more. I now see so much more potential than I ever did at the start. And I only got to this point by realizing the boundaries that kept me shackled down. I realize now that there is no ONE way to do any of this. The idea, the premise behind free-flowing innovation is that it is NOT defined by a narrative.
I see the digital landscape as undefined now and I know when those who make the decisions realize this too, that is when true innovation will happen. My point is this, there is no wrong or right way to reach a dynamic digital landscape. The idea is simple, create an ever-changing digital canvas with dynamic web environments in a cost-effective model. This can be done in a plethora of ways... Edmodo using web links and videos embedded inside of the interface. Interaction is intuitive and streamlined for the teacher making it virtually possible to create any platform for learning regardless of subject matter. www.edmodo.com
I also see a vast amount of potential in Google docs for education. Just by creating a general account like I have; I have gained access to a host of options I never would have had 5 years ago. I have the ability to create wikis, websites, and interactive blogs such as this one at the touch of a button. And that is just the beginnings There are also calendars, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations I can create and share across the globe for collaboration with students in real time. The possibilities here are endless.
There is also my initial discovery of Google Chrome and how it could be implemented as a simple, streamlined interface, using Google Drive to house all of your interactive data, and link it all into one highly dynamic and interactive platform. My Youtube videos showcase this idea in a variety of ways. This interface is the most simple by far, but requires the use of more apps and websites to complete the fusion of the final goal than anything else I have discovered. The best part is that it is all linked to your Google drive account/email so no matter what, your favorites that you set up and the apps that you decide to use in the classroom, make the interface intuitive enough to set up per subject level and prepare ahead of time for your students... As seen below...
I even see the potential using Livebinders to create a single interface, single website link, that you can combine every bit of your data, videos, websites, and any other interactive links in one convenient location. You can then share this with your students, or even use in your classroom environment on an interactive whiteboard or using an Ipad (with Splashtop or some other desktop controlling software app) you can interact with this website to engage your students on a totally different level. All of this in ways you have never been able to do in one place and the video below gives you an example of how to do that...
I know that all of these links are from previous blogs but I want to simply build upon what I have already started in my earlier blogs. So if you have seen the videos already, no worries, just move on to the next area, because I am going to continue to innovate and share my ideas as I can. Below you can see a link to one of the websites I have created. I have done my best to make it simple so you can navigate it and see how all of this connects and hopefully in the end it will all make sense.
https://sites.google.com/site/aaronstechstuffs/ One of my websites. This website alone has a host of features on it that demonstrate the power of Google. Using links directly to Youtube, Google Blogger, and Livebinder I can streamline all my data into ONE interactive website that I can use as my platform to get to all my other crucial links for information in one place. And the beauty of this model is that the changes I make on the other sites do not effect this main navigation site so this will ALWAYS stay the same.
In the next week I will be exploring Edmodo, Moodle, and a few other available Learning Management Systems with Online features to round out my solutions using Technology in the classroom with Dynamic Web Environments. In the end I want to have a host of solutions available for this issue so stay tuned. Thank you.
Aaron
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