Comments on: Turning on Our Lights

By: Heather Loy

Heather Loy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:09:21 +0000

I agree with you and the above comments but will go one step further to say FEAR controls teachers and administrators. It’s not that they don’t know technology, tools, etc. It’s that they CHOOSE not to learn. Teachers fear the unknown – which is sad, ’cause isn’t learning new things or being life-long students/learners what being a teacher is all about and what we’re trying to instill in our students? Administrators FEAR the unknown, too, but more as a legal, public dissent, and the “what if” syndrome. So Instead of embracing new tools/tech that might keep kids engaged in learning; and instead teaching students to think for themselves and discover knowledge relevant to their interests, we’ll continue the lecture/worksheet method that’s been going on for hundreds of years.

By: susan

susan — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:40:46 +0000

I can see why you and Elizabeth make a powerful team. I wonder if the stats change by division (lower, middle, upper)?

By: Cathy Nelson

Cathy Nelson — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:30:20 +0000

Why I do believe you’ve hit the nail on the head. Bravo. The statistics tell their own story, and I’d wager that educators’ stat are probably worse.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:34:52 +0000

Would love to share your thoughts and data over at Inservice, ASCD’s blog, where some educators have responded to Prensky’s article:
http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/turning-on-the.html

By: Karen Montgomery

Karen Montgomery — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:36:35 +0000

I agree with you. The lights are out not only with educators, but with parents, too. I am continually amazed when I see how many of the adults I know have never text messaged or chatted or instant messaged anyone. Recently, a friend’s brother took his 11-tyear-old to buy a cell phone. The son wanted to have text messaging added to the plan. The father responded, “It’s a phone. If you want to talk to someone, call them. For five dollars a month I’ll buy you a typewriter to type messages on!” When my husdband and I changed our plan recently, we dropped the number of minutes and added unlimited text messaging.

I also run across a lot of people with Internet enabled cell phones, who don’t know how to check e-mail, surf the mobile web (even to check the weather), download photos, etc. and many of these are educators.

I can undertsand the feeling of “lights out.” I recently lost my digital camera which I use almost daily. Without I felt like something was missing in documenting the important and the not-so-important happenings in my life. I feel absolutely lost when I have to attend a “lids down” meeting and sometimes I get a little “twitchy” when not connected to Twitter, Flickr, my wiki and my blog (or other’s blogs) for a period unplanned by me.

I like my gadgets and online tools and try to use them to their fullest extent. We have to get adults and educators to turn on the devices, too!