Welcome to the Belmond-Klemme Community School District Technology Blog!
We are embracing Web 2.0 applications and this technology blog is just the beginning of our electronic communications to all stakeholders keeping everyone updated as to what is going on with tech at BK Schools.
Soon, our staff will also be blogging, creating wikis that allow for student interactivity digitally in the classroom, and communicating via RSS feeds to parents,guardians and community members. Keep watch as Belmond-Klemme makes a transition to more Web 2.0 tools - which is so very important for our students.
Our students and future graduates are experiencing a very different world, albeit a visual and sedentary one, that continues to evolve into a global society with the emergence of new social, political, and business models brought about because of technology. It is predicted that 80% percent of the jobs that will be available to our current kindergarten students don’t exist today. These same kindergarten students will have four different careers and nine different jobs in their lifetime.
According to a report from the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, 60% of all new jobs in the early 21st century will require skills that are possessed by only 20% of the current workforce, and over 80% of the 23 million jobs that will be created in the next 10 years will require some post-secondary education. Our future graduates will be expected to collaborate globally with colleagues from all over the world.
This generation of students is the first to grow up with this new digital technology. Marc Prensky so clearly states in his article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, MP3 players, etc. are second nature to them. Today the average college grad has spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games and 20,000 hours watching TV. Today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently then we do. They speak an entirely new “internet” language utilizing blogs, wikis, podcasts and online jargon. They are use to downloading music, resourcing a library on their laptops, and being “connected” 24/7 through “IMing” and text messaging. Networking is a way of life.
As educators we are living in a different world with new challenges and new opportunities and we must figure out how to respond. We must rely on our experience to re-envision our classrooms and prepare our students for the 21st century with different kinds of collaboration.
We need to teach them to learn for understanding, not knowledge. We need to give them many opportunities to apply knowledge, to problem solve, to create and become passionate and fearless learners.
Our schools need to be equipped to teach with the technology tools that our students use in their everyday lives. Our strategic plan must reflect our changing world and help students to compete in this new interactive web world. These technologies are user friendly in a way that technologies have not been in the past - anyone can become a lifelong learner.
