We are Empowered!
As an educator teaching college students in the year 2007, I feel so incredibly empowered now that I’m finally “getting it”. Yes… I’m truly starting to harness, incorporate and channel technology (rich media content) and synthesize it with my teaching style, personality and instructional methodology.
I’ve been climbing the digital learning curve for over ten years years, but it’s only been recently after a great deal of reading, research, attending distance learning conferences and presenting online teaching workshops that I recently experienced a personal epiphany. WOW!!! I have more tools, options and diverse (high quality) media content at my disposal than ever before. I’ve been teaching for 25 years and its as if I have been completely recharged, rejuvenated, inspired and absolutely jazzed about these powerful new tools that I have literally at my fingertips.
To think I can embed a U Tube video clip about a famous artist or art style into my online Art Appreciation class after a quick google search or an enhanced podcast with Kevin Bacon narrating the life and times of Van Gogh or an interactive web site about Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions….link to the greatest art museums in the world and I’m only talking about art. My personal empowerment also applies and transcends to every discipline (and instructor/professor) from mathematics to science, literature, engineering, sociology, psychology, etc………….Click and watch…TeacherTube.com.
I’m almost overwhelmed by this new “flattened” world we live in and how advances in technology have changed all the rules – and given everyone with a computer and web access some serious input into where we go from here.
Today anyone can write and publish with nothing more than a web blog – anybody can be a media producer, designer, news reporter, poet, critic, philosopher, artist, photographer, documentarian or even a comedian. Yes…the rules are changing everyday and I have no idea what this this country will be like when my daughter Andei graduates from college seven years from now. What skills will she need to succeed in the new millennium?
One thing is for certain…My daughter Andei and her generation will need to be flexible, multilingual, versatile and life long learners – in fact, anyone trying to compete in the global marketplace from this point on will have to be creative, entrepreneurial and innovative. The old days of learning one trade or skill are over. We all (students and teachers) must be upgrading our skills constantly to stay competitive and viable in today’s economy.
Yes these are very exciting times, however we cannot be complacent in any way because our counterparts in India, Japan, Russia and China are “getting it” too in a big way and are catching up to us in the fields of science, engineering and mathematics – in fact, in some instances they are surpassing us, so it is time to wake up and crank it up a notch if we don’t want to lose ground and get left behind the eight ball in the flattened world.
Any Thoughts??? Click and Comment.
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