Student Voices about technology and creating the future

Sunday, March 8th 2009 by Wes FryercloseAuthor: Wes Fryer Name: Wes Fryer
Email: wes@isteconnects.org
Site: http://www.speedofcreativity.org
About: Wesley is an international learning consultant, author, digital storyteller, educator and catalyst for educational reform focused on blended learning, differentiated instruction, and creative engagement. His bio is available on www.wesfryer.com/bio and complete vitae on www.wesfryer.com/vitae.See Authors Posts (74)

A year ago at this time, I was delighted to discover the COSN/Pearson-produced video “Learning to Change – Changing to Learn.” That video featured many prominent educational technology leaders, authors, and other adults speaking about the need to embrace digital literacy and 21st century skills in our schools. This year, in advance of next week’s COSN conference in Austin, Texas, I’m again delighted to find another COSN/Pearson-produced video about similar themes but told entirely through student voices: “Learning to Change, Changing to Learn – Kid’s Tech.”

What messages do you hear most clearly from these students? Watching this video as part of an after-school professional development workshop or faculty meeting would be a worthwhile activity, particularly if educators are given a chance to discuss it and answer this question together. I hear students clearly saying technology is an essential part of their identities and the way they process as well as interact with information and other people in the world. Given this reality for many students, why are schools not embracing more digital, personal technology platforms (including laptops as well as cell phones) as incredibly powerful learning levers and amplifiers? Sadly, fear and ignorance continue to define many conversations in many school board meetings. Perhaps students in your LOCAL community should record and share a similar video to this one, and then ask to show it at an upcoming school board meeting? Perhaps then your local school board members will listen and start to engage in the dialog necessary to change our schools into the multi-age, digitally infused learning centers we need them to be in the 21st century.

This past week, thanks to Peggy Sheehy, Jim Gates, and Kim Collazo, I also discovered the “student voice” video “No Future Left Behind.” Like the previous COSN/Pearson video, it turns the microphone and screen entirely over to students to relate why digital technologies are so constructively relevant within their lives and personal learning journeys today.

My favorite quotation from this video is:

I can’t create my future with the tools of your past.

From the mouths of our students we hear the truth, ringing forth like the peal of a bell on a clear, crisp morning.

In the United States in 2009-2010, let’s not make the typical “adult” technology purchasing mistake with the additional EETT program funds our respective states will receive. Let’s NOT use those dollars to purchase educational technologies which simply reinforce the traditional, teacher-directed model of “schooly” learning. (To quote a term from Clay Burrell.) Instead, let’s embrace 1:1 learning and provide students with the digital learning tools which they deserve and need to thrive in our networked attention economy.

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