Call for Ideas

From 2009 archived post
by Mike Gentry

This won’t be a long blog. Really, it’s not so much of a blog as it is a call for ideas. Specifically – “How are you using technology in your classroom today?” I would like to get your ideas and post them on this website. It’s a win-win-win- and we will all benefit from new ideas.

Of course, if this were a blog, I would feel compelled to rant a little concerning my beginnings with technology and how far we’ve come. It started when my very insightful CTE (vocational) supervisors brought a Commodore 64 computer into my classroom (Yes, I’m that old!). They said, “We don’t know how you can use this thing, but figure it out; because, what we do know is that this is the future.” No one knew what the future would look like then. I thought about that some time ago when I stumbled across the http://www.rense.com/general69/future.htm website. There are many websites that address the future of computing, but this one made me linger.

Today’s classroom is not so much about chalk. It’s not even about the miles of wiring to hook up everything. It’s more likely about the endless wireless signals shooting invisibly across your classroom literally bringing the world to an LCD projector and into the minds of our students. It’s incredible.

With all the changing, what hasn’t changed is that we continually need to figure out how to use these things… because, it’s the future. I think we do a much better job with that now than “back in the day.”

Now I’m calling for your ideas on how you use technology in the classroom. I want to hear it all, but I’m especially interested in creative and unusual ways, and ways that others may not know about.