Thing 6

"If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write. "

Karl Fisch is quite a visionary. I found it easy to relate to his chagrin at hearing parents say that they were not good at math, therefore they didn't expect their child to be good in math. As a former art teacher I heard a similar line often enough, and found it just as confounding. To think that anyone would want to limit future generations by their own shortcomings seems counter intuitive in a country where we are appalled when we hear that the next generation may not have a higher standard of living than the current one.

The main problem with becoming technologically literate is that the goal if constantly moving further and further ahead. When I first started using a computer in college classes it was no more than a glorified typewriter, but if I could format a paper and successfully print it, I was fairly computer literate. Later I had to be able to use printers, scanners, the Internet, and a digital camera. Now I need to upload my pictures, my ideas, my image, and my voice. I need to discover, develop, share, communicate, investigate, synthesize, analyze, enjoy, and still write lesson plans.

I had pretty much learned how to read and write at an adult level by the end of high school and have just been changing the content since. But to become technologically literate puts new meaning to the title of a life long learner. Once I begin to feel comfortable with on-line class development, on-line grading, blogging, e-mailing, searching, and spreadsheets I discover that new developments have passed my by while I was struggling with the last generation of "new".

But looking back at the quote from Mr. Fisch, "unwilling to make the effort"--he's not saying we all have to be to go to tech guy, but we should be trying to go to that guy less and less often and be more and more able to answer our own questions--ask our own questions--and help our students develop their own questions and answers. Without their questions, those dream of free university level education, cheap power-- not from fossil fuel--and a more equalized access to the blessings of technology worldwide will not materialize, and the next generation--and the next--may indeed have a lower standard of living than the last.

I might also add that in light of the budgetary constraints under which our state and many of our schools (and families) find themselves much of Mr. Fisch's vision for 2020 may be delayed, but at least he has a dream and prophets can not be bogged down with details like dates.