Techno Literacy

There are several things that educators can do to ensure that citizens are wholly literate in the 21st centruy, but perhaps the easiest and most productive step would be to stay open to continuing to develop their own literacy. Although I find technology to be a fun and rewarding pasttime, I recognize that no all teachers feel that way. In fact, I work with teachers who still refuse to use email, although most school communication is conducted online these days.

Because of dynamics like these, a gap exists between what teachers and students can do. I think this gap is the reason that our school blocks Facebook and MySpace instead of teaching that there is a time, a place, and a function to utilize social networking and during the middle of a lecture isn't a prime one. I also maintain that we could and should be using these technologies to more effectively connect students with their learning.

By sticking our heads in the sand and enforcing the status quo, we are truly missing out on learning experiences and teaching such important topics as netiquette. The students I have in ninth grade this year have always had the Internet at their fingertips yet are probably the least apt to find quality sources becuase they are out on the World Wide Web on their own, without any guidance.

Issues like cyberbullying and Internet stalking are ones that I never had to think of as a child, yet I expect students to know how to deal with these issues today. Students need opportunities to learn how to use technology in as many different ways as possible. In my school, however, we are putting more and more hinderances on when and how students can use technology instead of educating them about how to do so in practical and effective ways.