What inspired my call for change?

There is a strong need for us to reform education. There are many aspects that need to be eliminated, reformed or implemented. My main focus has been incorporating technology in education. I am not simply talking about using Power Points in the classroom, but really allowing kids to embrace technology, and use it to learn about the world around them. I have explored this idea is previous blog posts, which you can check out at:

Kirsten's blog posts

What inspired me to investigate this topic were some Ted Talks that I happened to stumble upon. Sir Kenneth Robinson and Sugata Mitra have some great ideas about education. Those videos got me thinking about my own personal experiences in school. I used to struggle in school and still do. It is something that has never come easy to me. I have learned to deal with my struggles and have become a decent student, but it was a very different story when I was young. I can be a bit of a perfectionist at times, so when I didn't understand my homework I would throw a tantrum as if the world were about to end. I felt so dumb and I didn't know how to deal with it.

That changed in 5^th grade. I had an awesome teacher who really tried to connect with and understand his students. He was a big tough guy with a handlebar mustache and a Harley. It never seemed to fit the mold of a teacher, but that made me love him even more. He tried to put our education in our hands and make it more active instead of passive. One of my favorite experiences in his class was doing our state reports. We would walk as a class a few blocks down the street from our school to a computer lab. We each received our own floppy disc and were given the freedom to research our state and put together a PowerPoint. It was the first time I had really used the internet and PowerPoint. It made learning so much fun! I couldn't wait until we got to go to the computer lab.

Back then there wasn't that much technology available for use, but my teacher used what technology was available to him to involve his students in their own learning. I feel like I definitely benefited from this alternative teaching style. Not all the fifth graders in my school got to take advantage of the computer lab and you could tell a difference in the reports from different classes. There was a big difference between our class and the other fifth grade classes. Our class seemed much more informed on their particular states and more excited about sharing what we had learned.

We can make school a more exciting environment for kids. We just need to use what is now available to us. We are in a technological revolution. Remember back to the printing press. That was a revolutionary idea that put more knowledge and information into the hands and minds of the common people. This spark growth and was a big part of the renaissance. Also the industrial revolution was a development in technology in the work place. This led to an economic boom. This technological revolution, in which we find ourselves now, has provided us with some awesome tools that could help us create and educational boom. If only we would just implement it.

UPDATE:

I am grateful for the comments and feedback that I have received. It is comforting to know that I am not the only one who sees that there is an issue with our education system. I personally feel as though I have a personal drive to pursue this topic more in depth but I seem to be lacking a specific direction. This will require more research on my part. Also in regards to my presentation, I was super nervous which threw of my timing and flow. That is something I will need to work on if I ever want to propose specific changes to the school board or some other sort of authoritative figure.