Leadership Day 2011

Source: Bill Sheskey

What makes us do the things we do as teachers? Do we call it opportunity, responsibility, or motivation? Countless books, articles, and news reports look at the education system and question where the problem is with motivating students. Well, what about the teacher? We could argue that if we take away our passion for teaching, we in effect take motivation away from our students, too. Forced deadlines for units of study, scripted programs, and off-the-shelf “boxed” curricula leave little room for creativity. Teachers, like students, need to feel empowered to make choices to engage their learners in a more meaningful way.

Regardless of medium or era, education has always been the act of offering information for acquisition. “Learning” is the individual process, where one internalizes new concepts or skills. “Education,” though, is the active delivery – the technique of shaping and structuring ideas by an instructor so a student assumes them readily and permanently. The two most obvious changes in educational delivery over the past 15 years have been the visual representation and immediacy of information as a result of technology.

Communication has advanced along an accelerating continuum from the town crier to the printing press to the telephone, radio, television, and Internet. The change in fact-finding, however, is different from simple communication. Essentially, we are motivated by the idea that teachers, as well as students, can “map” the way to change and technology has made this possible. When teachers and students both share in designing the learning, they are driven to take responsibility, seek opportunity, and desire more.

Innovative design crosses over all aspects of education. Integrating the design of information into the daily conversation by integrating technology into the 21st-century classroom is essential. It is a necessary part of the teacher's toolkit. The underpinning of good educational design is based on looking at the information available and communicating meaning for a world of learners. Technology has retooled how we teach and how students learn and used effectively the payoff is substantial.