Thing 23

Wow! I feel as if I have covered years worth of material at hyperspeed! The real issue is the fact that many of these applications have been available to me and my students for years and I did not even know it! I have felt for well over a decade that the traditional classroom and role of a teacher was in need of a major transformation. I could see that the world was quick to change but education was managing to stay dormant. Ten years ago when I suggested that grading should be done by computer and that parents should have access, people in my District looked at me like I had two heads! Today we are actually using it! When I suggested that students are engaged when on the computer and it is a great way to learn (if we can figure out how to teach) teachers thought I was trying to cause trouble. Computers are for spreadsheets and wordprocessing and that is all we are responsible for teaching - actually the computer teacher is the only one responsible... When I suggested to the University Department head that a series of Music and Technology in the classroom courses needed to be developed they gave me a puzzled look. Three years later I received a brochure in the mail with exactly what I had imagined! If we look at what the internet is doing you see creativity all over the place! It is the creative mind on steroids! The Arts as we know it has changed and has become arguably the most important element on the internet!

I have always had the vision of changing the way I deliver curriculum content and have also known that I was just not versed in the things that could help me do it. Through this course it has brought me back to the realization of breaking open the things that I knew I did not know. Nothing BUT 23 things (probably more like 10,023 Things) could be taught to teachers for PD sessions. I plan on fueling the blog that I have already been maintaining with more for my students. Now that I know a better way to organize it all I just pray that the computer be able to keep up with me! Nothing is worse than sitting in front of a computer that does not move... Hey, maybe we can creat 1 minute to-do-lists for those moments. I actually started the practice during this very course!

Unless electricity or another yet to be invented way of powering up our resources is completely cut off (I shudder to think) the internet as our primary means of communication and learning is not going away. The question becomes how to keep up with the changes. We need a pilot school, we need a pilot school district! The role of the educator will be turned into an online lesson planner and moderator, much like the creators of 23Things! School buildings will become obsolete and all of the money saved from that could go into creating smaller teacher pods. Teachers would go to work to create their online classes and have "office" hours online and onsite for students who needed it. There would still be some activities like Band, Orchestra, Choir Rehearsals, Sporting events and practices that one can get the full experience only by participating in them, but even that can change! Imagine being able to practice with your bandmates, each from the comfort of your their home! I am getting ahead of myself again. It probably already exists. But if it doesn't...this time it is in print with a date and time stamp! The door has been opened to me and I will keep on walking. It will start with my blog and explode from there.

I can see a great demand in the field of baby-sitters and memberships to Computer Access "schools"... They might be called "Creative Arts" Institutions.