Well, after a month of graduate courses surrounding the “Technology in Education” theme coupled with my new position as an Instructional Technology Liaison for a K-5 Title I school in Tucson, I can see the challenge looming on the horizon. It’s not just the students who need to keep in step with 21st century techno developments. The teachers also need to harness the technology. However, reluctance describes the general reaction on the part of teachers (and lack of funds on the part of schools and districts). Ouch!

What can be done to alleviate the symptoms of remaining in the dark ages of print media and overhead projectors and propel us toward the fiber-optic light before us? I’m grateful for the challenge, frustrating as it can be at times. What makes matters more difficult in Title I schools is the lack of technology available to families of students when not in school.

I would love to find grant money to fund our small, poor school population with a cutting edge technology lab that incorporates all the finest and latest to be used as an example of what can be done. There’s no better test tube than the 98% generationally poor Hispanic population I’m in charge of. Yet we are relegated to Windows 2000 on old Compaq desktops that take 10 minutes to boot (and I won’t mention the fact there are no color printers). OK, I will mention it. Well, I just did.

The students are so excited for computer lab time. It’s their only contact with a new century. More must be done to accomodate this need. But how? How?….

Today I begin a new direction in this blog to coincide with my graduate studies in educational technology combined with my new position as an Instructional Technology Liaison in a Tucson elementary school (two matters about which I’m most excited).

As usual, I will share my experiences, new learning directions, and frustrations with the status quo of mediocrity I encounter from week to week. After my first week in the new public school position, I encountered another senseless contradiction.

Imagine asking your grandmother to remove your car’s transmission and move it to the attic (yes, I’m stealing this line from an old Steve Martin comedy routine which I’m sure is dating me). Now imagine asking school teachers to instruct 30 students, keeping them on task and in cadence with one another so all learn what is needed in order to pass to the next grade level at year’s end. Only it’s not just YOU requiring this of the teachers. Administrators also have their demands that students pass various tests in order to validate the schools existence and value. Add to this equation the politicians legislating teacher activities to such an extent that they no longer have time to help promising young learners but rather have to make certain no disenfranchised child is left behind thereby dumbing down the classroom experience for all to meet the lowest common denominator. Finally, multiply these demands by the media’s negative headlines written to gain reader attention to their presently failing enterprise in light of ever increasing competition. It’s ugly. It’s senseless. And it’s self contradictory.

I’m excited to see a new generation of classroom instructors who can facilitate critical thinking but who can even MORE foster a new morale among our youth that motivates them to value learning. The paradigm shift from career focused learning to lifelong learning is in our midst and the status quo will never meet the need. God have mercy. If we don’t find the way, we will lose a generation to technology as a substitute rather than a tool.

One such tool emerging from our Web 2.0 world is the blog; short for ‘web log’ (not “big load of gossip” as assumed by some . Blogging is the most useful way to have students journal and let teachers know what’s up with their class. The present generation is accustomed to text messaging and sending pics and audio files and these can be send from cell phones direct to blogs. Google’s “Blogger” service offers a quick link so cell phone users can take a photo or video, record an audio clip or write a note and text it directly to their blog. What a great way to engage a class and get everyone collaborating. Of course not everyone has a cell phone that is equipped accordingly but the times are changing and it behooves us to prepare.