What is best practice teaching? I would say that it is teaching a child where they are through what they best relate to. In today’s educational world, children are relating to technology through the use of the Internet, video games, social networking, and television. Eric Klopfer et al. said it best, “These youth have been completely normalized by digital technologies – it is a fully integrated aspect of their lives.” When something is so ingrained in everyday life, why remove it to try and teach something new? I feel like that is saying come to school and learn by candlelight instead of using electricity because that’s the environment that the teachers know how to best teach in. The reality is that teachers need to adapt, otherwise they are creating further disconnect between school and the rest of the world. How can school prepare anyone for the rest of their life if it does not acknowledge the tools they will be using?
The argument regarding the use of technology in the classroom will continue, however, how will teachers learn the technology in order to incorporating it into their lessons? Should students be teaching their teachers? Should schools be focusing their professional development around the use of technology and ways it can be used to educate students? At this point, I think it is more a question of how can we move forward, rather than continue down the same low-tech teaching philosophy.
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