Respond+here

=Answer the following: Are we really preparing our students for their future?= Rico- Apparently we aren't because I have been trying to answer this question but I got stuck trying to figure out how to enter my response. My main point is that technology already is a major component of education, and I believe it will be more so in the future; however, our technological skills/resources tend to be very limited. If we don't know how to use it, how can we teach others. Now, assuming we have a computer savvy in the classroom, this type of educator would have to balance his/her instruction and cover all of the "essential skills," from health to vocabulary development, which is not an easy task, and he/she will have to figure out what to do in the absecence of the required resources (such as appropriate # of computers, educational programs, etc.).

The question, I think, would be "what" can we do to really prepare students for their future, becasue it seems to me that the current state of our educational system makes it evident that we are NOT really preparing them.

Villa- I agree with Rico. We are preparing our students for today. What we are doing in our classrooms in based on research done yesterday and that is already outdated. Teachers' major complaint is time constraints. How do teachers find the time to teach students how to use technology when teaching them to read, write, and math are top priority. Teachers can use available technology to teach those subjects, but it is not being done. It takes time and patience to both find resources and teach students. If the teacher is not computer savvy, as Rico pointed out, this will not get done.

Clements - I don't know if this question was intended for primary education or through college but I believe we could be preparing students better for the future if we started them with some more hands on type of training. Speaking from personal experience after getting my finance degree and later becoming a credit analyst was very difficult. I struggled with my first job out of college. I was not prepared for the work I was doing. It would have been nice to have some specialized training and not so much general education.

Joanaly - I posted this question as a starter to see how and what we are doing as educators to really prepare our 21st century learner for his/her future. Now I feel that this question has more meaning to me and what I'm doing in my classroom for my students, because the integration of technology in my classroom has not been an easy task. First as a 3rd grade teacher I feel a lot of pressure to help my students pass state and districts assessments, and my students are lacking testing skills. This is a major problem, because I want my students to feel successful in everything they do. Second, these assessments are not related with the skills and knowledge my students acquire through the integration of technology. This represents to me as an educator a divorce between what I need to do for my students to become life long learners and what the district and state wants from the students. Through the different readings about constructivism, I believe I had found a bridge that will help me integrate technology in a seamlessly but relevant manner to my students and still develop in them the skills needed to be successful in everyday tasks. The constructivism states that students bring their own knowledge and they can expand it, modify it or reject it, through the different experiences and social interaction with others. Technology is one of the tools we can use, as educators, to guide the students' learning process. In a constructivist classroom, the responsibility of learning is in the students' hands, teachers are just guides that ignite, supervise and redirect the focus of the learning process, to help students become successful life long learners.