Awake & Curious

On this hot summer day in my special education elementary school I had a number of discussions with my students during lunch. Two of them in the 4th grade wanted to send pictures from one PSP to another. I don’t know if it can be done, at least not in my school because they can’t connect with our wifi. Password protected. God forbid the NYC DOE gave connection away for free. But they wanted to know how to get their Psp’s to ” talk ” to each other.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a a fourth grader on a cold day this winter, he was telling me all about the Iphone this had to be January or December, and how he wants one. He knew it was going to be like the touch screen Imac in our lab. I was fascinated and not surprised. He actually said one day all computers will be phones. I had a little ahaa moment . This is their langauage. They speak it with ease. Technology is for them first nature.

I even think they hide their knowledge to an extent becasue they are not speaking to one of their own . It reminds me of growing up in the seventies and having a large arsenal of knowledge about certain rock performers in my case the Who, Frank Zappa, Clapton, Pink Floyd, Jimmy Hendrix, Muddy Waters, ect..

I would never have spoken openly with my teachers about my musical tastes because, well I was passionate about music. I knew my teachers would not understand, ” they did not speak my language and they were not “one of us”.

The astonishing thing is that criteria or the special knowlege that my inner city special education kids use to define or designate someone as “one of them” is not the knowlege of Rappers or Wrestlers like it was 5 years ago, but knowledge of Myspace, blogs, other social networks, Youtube, or how to pick up the local wifi to connect your PsP’s.

In direct contrast to my student”s mastery of this  specialized knowlege many of the teachers (and some of the administrators ) I work lack rudimentary tech knowlege , and have no desire or plan to change this fact anytime soon.

Amazing, I write grants that talk about “ 21st century learning skills” and my students need for instruction, curriuclum aligned with, and instructors prepared to impart these skills to them, and if you give me this money we will create students prepared for the present/future blah blah blah .

But it is a lie.

My students are getting the experience to create social networks, collaborate with others who do not share their physical space, utilize visual media to commuicate, ect…. . They are somewhat ready for the 21st century. They have some of the “specilized knowlege” they will need to traverse the 21st century. The thing is they are not acquiring any of this “special knowlege ” in their classrooms. Indeed this special knowledge these students have is making school and the boredom of teacher’s chalk and talk completely irrelevant to the students who fill the seats in their classrooms.

How do I change that? How can I get teachers to see that things have changed and the way they are teaching is not good enough or ok anymore? Don’t worry I don’t expect the answer, but it is a hell of a question.