I feel that it is my primary responsibility as a teacher to provide my students with access to educational opportunities, and to create the environment that maximizes that access. As a seventh and eighth grade teacher, I have met many students who find that the best way to express their ability is by using the power and capabilities of the computer. If I am to be true to my responsibilities, I need to be as capable as my students are in using that technology. It would be sad if I failed in allowing a student to express himself adequately because of my own shortcomings. In addition, I must recognize that I am working with a most precious commodity, the future of the sons and daughters of the community in which I work, with whose parents I share an extremely important obligation. This obligation is one that I must always be conscious of, and respond to as an educator. Two elements that play a dominant role in this response are educational technology and curricular development.

            The educational environment available to my students is in part a virtual one, understood by them, viewed with curiosity by me. Coupled with the physical environment in which they function and perform as students, this represents the modern arena in which teachers work today. A crucial element of providing access to that total environment is the ability to communicate with my students and their families about it, and the capability to demonstrate the educational validity of the virtual classroom, as well as the physical one.  Strengthening this aspect of my educational repertoire can only be beneficial to my students and me.

Curriculum becomes extremely important by providing the justification for the implementation of programs within my classroom. Cross-curricular activities are essential to my students’ success by strengthening the relationship between the different disciplines, and creating additional opportunities for students to make connections to their own lives. The relevant subject matter for these activities is constantly changing and it is my obligation as an educator to remain current and flexible regarding these newly-developing needs. It may become necessary to deal with controversial or sensitive subject matter. I must be aware of the controversy, and sensitive to the appropriate way to convey information to my students. Ultimately, as Cuban (2003) points out, schools are successful if “they are discharging their primary duty to seriously and deliberately educate students to think and act democratically inside and outside of classrooms” (p.47). As a teacher, I become an essential part of the school’s ability to successfully accomplish this.

I anticipate an upheaval in our educational community with respect to the way that we must respond to special needs being dealt with in homogenous classrooms. Always at the forefront of this issue has been technology created for (and in many cases, in) the classroom, to broaden the access to educational opportunities. Cuban (2003), again:

Although equal treatment – the reigning metaphor is a race with everyone at the same starting line – is a thoroughly American version of equality, a competing definition is to help those who need special assistance to get up to the starting line (p.55).

 My commitment in this area centers on full-inclusion, and Universal Design. Both are described well on the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) website at http://www.cast.org/.

            Finally, I feel that we live in times that demand that we accept our role as participants in a global educational community. In speaking of the history of Western education, Walter Ong (in Walker & Soltis, 2004) hypothesizes about differences between  ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, and changes that occurred in the nineteenth century in the following manner: “One theorizes that mastery of the dominant form of communication in one’s time is an important determinant of a person’s power in that culture” (p. 73). Educational technology offers that “dominant form of communication” and curriculum looking to the future recognizes this. Having the ability to see other people, in other countries, with different religious, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds, in real-time, gives us the chance, in an instant, to look our fellow human beings in the eye and ask the questions that need to be asked,  as well as give and  receive the answers.

            While some may feel that it is easier to ignore change, it is dangerous to do so. Hopefully it is true that, as Hewitt (2006) points out, “When necessary, the academic knowledge orientation flexes to accommodate fads, trends or the technology…” (p. 118). I agree with Hewitt that “The potential importance of curriculum is magnified if you consider that the new means of accessing a central curriculum make it portable and accountable in new ways. The content probably won’t change, but the medium that conveys and the setting in which it is engaged will” (p. 121). The medium today is rapidly changing, and incorporates educational technology, testing strategies, and appropriate classroom and curricular accessibility. If teachers do not recognize this, the students will learn, and perhaps thrive, but not in our classrooms. Teachers not willing to embrace the future run the risk of  becoming part of the past. 

 

To References