Where have I been?

 

My passion for education can be traced back to different places and times in my life. If I look back in my family history, my maternal grandparents were both high school teachers and the importance they placed on education carried through from my parents to me. Learning and school were never a chore to me - I simply enjoyed being in the classroom. From elementary to high school, from undergraduate to graduate studies, from formal education to simply exploring the world around me, learning is central.

 

Technology as a tool for learning has enamoured me ever since my dad brought home my first Texas Instrument computer. I remember being stumped by addition and subtraction problems as a four-year old using a single button joystick. Later in elementary school, games like Where in the World is Carment Sandiego? and Oregon Trail were the highlights of a school day. When the online world began to open up to the masses in high school, I didn't quite understand, and neither did most of the world, how learning as we knew it would be changed forever.  

 

As a teacher, I understand that technology in the classroom is no longer a novel distraction from the monotony of spellings tests and reading textbooks, but it is shaping the very way we educate our students. Our children are immersed in technology and their brains are wired to exist in a digital world. How does this change the way students learn and the manner in which we teach?

 

My choice of images was an astronaut. Highly educated and equipped, but floating into the great unknown. We are barely scratching the surface of the potential of online learning, and this is exciting, a journey that is unnerving at times, but without a doubt exciting.