One of my favorite things to do as an educator who is interested in technology is to find new and useful online resources. There are times when I spend hours at a time looking at different sites and applications, wondering if and how I can use them in the classroom. What I have found out is well...there is a lot out there and it seems like more are added by the day. At times it even seems a bit overwhelming, and I can only imagine how people who are not all that interested in technology feel. But the reality of today's world, and especially moving forward into the future, is that technology will not stop moving at the speed it going. Online learning resources seem to keep moving with everything else.
In my classroom I use online learning resources frequently and find many of them very valuable. My attitude is that the more the better and I enjoy keeping up and discovering new resources. Many people I work with get frustrated and see online learning as just another passing fad. They could not be more wrong. A lot of the resources that I find and use present content in a much better way than I believe I ever could. Some people seem to be scared of being replaced by a computer it seems like. I truly do not think that teachers will ever become irrelevant but there is not doubt that our jobs are changing in large part due to online learning. Learning how to become more of a facilitator and co-learner will become essential skills for educators rather than being an encyclopedic source of info ourselves. It is my hope that this year I can have some meaningful conversations about this with some colleagues.
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