Virtual Teaching

My original reflection about the Kodiak Island Virtual Learning Conferences was written before I left on a month long trip in a truck camper.  John and I drove about 4,000 miles around the United States, visiting family and enjoying the open road.  It was a fantastic trip and one of the best parts about it was how unplugged I was.  Being unplugged, however, made be really reflect on technology in our classrooms and the idea of virtual teaching.

I have been very torn about the use, and in some cases over use, of technology in today's classrooms. Sure it is a reality we can not ignore, and sure kids need to have the skills survive our technology driven world, but when do our kids get to unplug? Basically, my month in a camper, driving around the United States made me aware of two things when it comes to virtual teaching.  They are not new concepts, but important ones.  First, kids need time built into the school environment to unplug and decompress. Second, any use of technology weather it be through a virtual classroom or a brick and mortar building must be authentic and not just a way to fill time.

I truly believe that it is imperative that we explicitly teach our kids how and when to unplug.  Did I miss my lost iPhone when I was hiking around Garden of the Gods, Colorado?  No. But I am dismayed to think that many of my students would be; driven more by the need to Snapchat and Instram their experience instead of actually living the experience.  My point with all of this, is that I realized how important it is to teach kids how to disconnect from technology.  One way to do this is to make sure that our use of technology in schools is authentic.

I have become very dismayed at how much time our students are connected to their technology with no educational goal connected to that time.  I look around before school, during lunch, and unfortunately even during classroom instructional time and I see kids randomly texting, surfing the net, taking selfies, and playing games.  Even in school we are using technology as a way to pacify kids.  We purchase reading programs and games that are supposed to support the standards and raise test scores.  Show me the data that says its working.

I am not anti technology in the classroom.  I am excited to develop the use of ibook this year.  I think it will be a powerful tool, but I also plan to advocate we devote as much time as possible to teaching kids how to unplug.