Technology Teacher: 21st Century Schools and the Workplace

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

This video takes about 13 minutes to view.

When you watch it, you should have a piece of paper ready to take down the important parts. I didn’t the first time I watched it.

It started out like a travel video of some wonderful 17th century town on the East coast.

I was wondering why I was watching it, but I had seen it on PHS Principal Blog. That blog is described as a “High school principal blogs about education, technology, student engagement and things that are happening at Paris High School in Illinois”. I am originally and most of my life from IL, so I have an interest in reading what is happening there.

Now, as the writer of the blog states, “only my mom reads it!” But recently there has been some consolidation of several schools and districts, etc. so I expect there might be more posts to read in the future. Although this blog does not have a great deal of posts (in the past), I usually enjoy each and every post made, so I wanted to look at this video he had posted for us to view. He said these are “videos over the next few days to inspire and challenge those of you here to think about school and what it should be!”

Also the video says… by Alan November. His is a name to be remembered in the education field, so it must be a good video! On the website November Learning, it says about Alan:

"An iconoclast whose common sense we cannot afford to ignore. He is at the heart of the matter regarding student learning and the imperatives of the future."

In this video, Alan November is so subtle in his teaching (to me!) that I had to listen to it more than once to be sure I got what he really was saying. He lulls you into the words and sometimes, you are not really sure if you just heard a GREAT THOUGHT, or if you just imagined it!

If you just want one ~~sentence~~ paragraph about what the video says (IMHO):

We must shift the paradigm of the way we are teaching from the TEACHER IS THE BOSS Model to the WE ARE ALL LEARNERS Model where there is collaborative, self-directed LIFE LONG learning preparing students for the WORKPLACE of the 21st Century. (WHOA! I did get it in one LONG sentence. I hadn’t thought it was possible!)

Alan November gives many examples of “friends of mine” who are teaching and using this approach or that approach. He certainly is lucky to be able to travel the country and see all these examples and hear about them from special teachers, like Bob Sprankle.

I was going to go back through the video and write down all the IMPORTANT PARTS and review them here, making my own comments on each item, but I think the readers can do that on their own.

THEN, after viewing and thinking about the video, tell me what you thought were the most important thoughts. What did you learn from watching the video?

I am interested in your opinion.