"Turning digital" can make it easier!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog about technology and didactic.

Let's start with a couple of questions:

How "technological" are you? (I hope a little bit more than the man in this video :)!)

Do you think that digital staff can replace more traditional media in any situation?

:D 

Dealing with ICT can be really funny, but let's go back to more serious matters.

I'm gonna start organizing my ideas :)

I've got some question I asked myself at the very beginning:

• Is it easy to transform a teacher in a more "digital creature"?
• How long does it take to learn all this technical staff?
• Will my students be better and quicker than me? (That would be embarrassing and mining my professional image...)
• I have a long experience in teaching: why should I start once again and change my teaching approach?!?
• Everything used to work so far: why should I risk and start something new, that can't give me any warranty?

I don't know if you agree with me, but I do believe that at school our students should be given the right instruments to cope with the world around them, and the world has become wider and smaller at the same time and it is turning more and more different, if we compare it to the one we used to live in as students (at least this is true for me, a teacher in her late forties).

Therefore, even if I'm not fanatic about technology, I still think we can't be blind in front of the huge transformation of the last decade, and I don't think of exaggerating if I say that it represents a revolution as important as the invention of the printing.

Apart from my premises, I would like to tell you something about my story:

I bought my first computer when my daughter was born: she is 13 now, so it's not a very long time ago!

I attended a couple of basic courses for beginners, but I think that my learning process passed through the "learning by doing" and "learning by making mistakes" for the majority of it.

A very important step forward was meeting my second husband ten years ago (he was so good that I decided to marry him five years later :). Don't worry,  I married him for love, not only for "digital interest"). 

All kidding aside, he thought me some important information about the logic that is behind the working process of a computer. I'm very glad to say, anyway, that the student overcame her teacher, and now I'm better than him!! (Little revenge of a "woman", who is "a subject unable to cope with men's things", as he always says!).

Then my interest in IT increased and I started getting information about the Interactive White Board. A couple of years ago I had one of these interactive wonderful board set up in my class, even if I was already using the video projector (a present from my sweet husband!) during my lessons since a couple of years before.

At the beginning I was planning my lessons using the board software, but I found it a little long and I was considering the fact that maybe there weren't many advantages in having such a powerful media in class. Moreover I had to set up the software on my home computer and the problem was that I had to save all changes to my work on a flash memory, and I started my dispersion of flash drives all over the world. I was probably expecting to see wonderful flash drive trees growing up. Heeelp!!!

Then, going back to my questions:

• Is it easy to transform a teacher in a more "digital creature"?

If it happened to me, I think anyone else can do it: I'm not a genius with several degrees, I'm just curious, like the majority of teachers are!

• How long does it take to learn all this technical staff?

Nowadays we are using these medias every day for several purposes in our private life as well, so we probably know many things already, and the only thing we need to do is to organize our knowledge, after having learnt some basics. I think the biggest effort is starting, then we can develop our preparation step by step. 

• Will my students be better and quicker than me? (That would be embarrassing and mining my professional image...)

Don't overvalue your students' digital competence. They are good at using staff, but they still need you. Read this article if you want to find out more.

• I have a long experience in teaching: why should I start once again and change my teaching approach?!?

Teachers have a very important and delicate task: they are there to help their students to face the world. It is a long process; a learning journey along many pathways, that give pupils the right instruments to interpret the natural and social environment - skills that represent the first steps to have the chance of acting on the world stage.

In my opinion it is important to know our students' world, their medias for learning and communicating, and we can't pretend that the ICT doesn't exist. We can take advantage of it and use it for an educational purpose, and, believe me, it offers a huge amount of possibilities. 

• Everything used to work so far: why should I risk and start something new, that can't give me any warranty?

I think that challenge is part of our profession: even if we have been teaching since a long time ago, we work with the awareness that every class and every single student ares different from the ones we met before, and every time we have to find the most suitable approach and strategies to make the teaching/learning process successful! Taking risks and trying new paths is part of this challenge. 

The technological progress is going on very quickly and it is deeply transforming our society, while school (at least this is true in my experience) is often much slower! 

If we are waiting for all kind of equipment set up in our class before starting a more "digital " approach, we couldn't be ready for that, even if we have the most updated devices: in fact a proper preparation on this matters takes time and experience.

That's why I think it's time to start!

Keep in touch and feel free to leave any comment or suggestion!