Two weeks ago I went to the MACUL conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It’s always an inspiring part of my year.  I walk away with a curated list of the best new websites that others have found and having seen keynotes that are inspiring while making me think deeply and reflect on myself as an educator.

My biggest takeaway from the conference wasn’t an idea completely new to me, but the conference helped me solidify my idea.  I used to think that when I was using technology with students that it wasn’t about the tech, it was about the standard that the students were learning through the tech.  I still agree with that but I wasn’t taking it far enough; we have to be thinking about how we are teaching kids to use technology.  I want my students to see technology as a portal that connects them to the outside world.  I want them to see it as their personal encyclopedia that ALWAYS has the right answer.  I want them to see technology as a tool that unlocks their creativity and allows them to express themselves more easily.

When we use technology as a tool to help us grade less papers it teaches kids that technology is another piece in an educational system that wants them to be complacent as learners.  I want the students in my room to be ignited in their learning.  I want them to be passionate, critical arbiters of the information entering their minds, actively connecting new ideas to their previous schema of the world around them.  Giving them a test on an iPad doesn’t do that any better than giving them a test on paper.

I remember being in elementary school and being so excited to use the technology we had.  The TV cart and the overhead projectors were amazing…. at first.  Until I realized that every time the TV cart entered the room it was going to show a movie that was made before I was born and every time the overhead projector came out I was supposed to memorize what my teacher said.  We’re at a crossroads again, we can choose to ignite our students and help them become the inventors of tomorrow or help them be great at taking orders and following directions.  Manufacturing jobs are dying and I want the world of tomorrow to be full of inspired people.