Tech Talk: How should we be using technology?

Earlier this week I discovered an excellent TEDx talk titled: Re-imagining Learning by Richard Culatta

This video identifies to three challenges traditional education systems face, and how technology re-imagined can help personalize our student's learning experiences.  As an advocate of student-centered education this approach to learning is very exciting and we are working toward this model every day.  Edmodo has been an excellent vehicle of personalized education at Episcopal Collegiate, where teachers and students are able to collaborate on topics and projects that extend beyond the walls of a classroom.  Students are excitedly building their own learning spaces by designing Internet site libraries and will be storing their grade-level masterworks in an eportfolio using Edmodo Backpack.  The second TEDx talk I enjoyed is called:Kids Should Learn Programming As Well As Reading And Writing by Mitch Resnick.

 I've been following Mitch's work with MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten Group for a few years and am currently working toward his vision of lifelong learning through programming.  His talk identifies misconceptions of digital fluency.  Just because we think our students are 'digital natives' doesn't mean they are actually fluent with technology.  Dr. Resnick makes the point that our children are experts at interacting with technology but not so much so with creating or expressing themselves with technology.  "It's almost as if they can read but not write with new technologies".  As a solution Dr. Resnick has pioneered a program called Scratch with MIT, that uses interactive programming blocks to encourage computational thinking, abstraction, problem solving, sequential and parallel processing and systems thinking.  Last year I briefly introduced Scratch to 2nd, 3rd, 4th graders who responded with resounding enthusiasm.  I would like to expand the use of Scratch this year for students to use in all the traditional disciplines they study.  It is important that we help our young people express themselves and develop modern habits of mind, through writing with new technologies.  Please take a moment to watch these two TEDx talks and let me know what you think.