Writing+Sample-One+Soapbox

The Kids are Waiting... Allow me to bring a personal perspective to this dialogue. Step to the side just a bit and peer through a different lens. We are struggling. We are educators who are struggling daily with bureaucracy and politics and the contradiction of a world of break-speed technological advancements that denies students the same opportunities for creative thinking processes by resisting the lure of technology that the “outside world” has already embraced. Kindly consider the momentum that could be gained if we were to join hands with industry - put our talents and resources to work in a unified vision -- think of the possibilities. It's a no brainer. Case in point: I am in the trenches daily with them; and my middle school students have literally "awakened" this past year when their content (yes that same old dreary content we call the standardized curriculum....) was delivered to them via authentic, meaningful translation within the 3-D MUVE of Teen Second Life. At VWC, I will be the one right next to Catherine, on my own soapbox, fighting the good fight for education to take its rightful place in the pecking order of “big business” priorities. Education IS big business- and it is systemically failing to serve our students as it should. Whereas I am the teacher who was allowed the opportunity to facilitate the actualization of everyone else’s theorizing- who was given the chance, took the leap, and brought 1000 students onto Ramapo Islands (the virtual presence for Ramapo Central School District in Suffern, New York), Catherine Parsons is the professional who took the time to show up at Ramapo in person in order to begin the tedious process of gathering the research and collecting the data. Her goal was to extrapolate some kind of academically sound results; the mandatory facts and figures traditionally required by the powers that be so they can toss them about and manipulate their meaning until their original conclusion becomes diluted and contorted, and fruitless. The irony, from my standpoint, is that these same conclusions should be clearly evident with nothing more than a day’s observation- no, actually two day’s observations. Come and watch the kids in a traditional classroom setting – with the best of teachers – scan the room for signs of engagement or investment. Then take those same kids – addressing the very same content but inclusive of the technology that is their birthright and tell me if you don’t see a dramatic shift in the energy invested, the degree of rigor demonstrated and the level of discourse in which these kids participate. Witness a collaborative, participatory learning community, based upon the foundations of traditional literacy and taken to a higher plane of experiential learning because of the inclusion of the technological utensils they are so very accustomed to outside of school. We need to get them there and we need to get them their NOW and It should be very clear that the most logical impetus of change will be the technology industry, barging if it must into the educational arena. It’s high time that the leaders in industry, the so-called “movers and shakers” step up to the plate and take the leap of faith that I was able to take a year ago. I am fortunate enough to work with a visionary administrator, a mentor who believes in me, and a district that supports a budget that allows these advancements. Most importantly, I serve a brigade of teachers who are willing to pioneer this unexplored territory. We have seen the future, and it is not sitting in rows, it is not preparing for careers in assembly lines, and it is not striving to regurgitate content in order to raise scores on standardized assessments! It is not a world where students learn more OUT of school than they do IN, and it is certainly not a world where the learning process should remain cloistered and specialized rather than infused into the heartbeat of a global society. It’s a simple argument- these kids are tomorrow’s think tank, the proprietors of our future, the incubation of all the vital decision-makers to come. How will your future employees, the CEO's, politicians, environmentalists, scientists, doctors, and (ehem) the teachers spend the first 12 years of their academic experience? What should it look like, and how can we combine our strengths, our resources and our vision to benefit all? I will go out on a limb here and predict that without the collaboration of industry and the support of corporate leadership there is little chance of pedagogical reform that will truly address the needs of the emergent society that is beckoning. The kids are waiting. They are waiting in rows.