Shouldn’t we as teachers demand the same type of academic risk-taking and self-directed learning from ourselves as we ask of our students?

My Struggle With Technology: “To wrap this up, I would like to say that I am one of the teachers that has taken the time to keep up and learn these new technologies as they come through.  Many of my colleagues have not.  Alas, here I am writing an article on a website called “The 21st Century Teacher,” but I truly feel like technology has become a rain cloud over my classroom.”

I’d like to say I have sympathy with this Anonymous Teacher of 18 Years (let’s sign our name to posts… we expect our students to claim their work, right?). However, I’m not feeling very much.

Technology is a tool… it is what you make it. Our classrooms are sacred spaces and we as teachers should make sue students feel that they are in a positive learning environment that might not have everything in control but is capable of being risky enough to figure out what’s needed to change the world.

Let’s stop blaming our tools and challenge ourselves to make the most of those tools, be they laptops, papyri, pencils or iPads (and let’s learn from the kids about how best to use those tools in our learning communities as well).