Tech-Connect: 24-7 Classrooms

As part of our school-wide collaboration with Framingham State University, Dr. James Cressey (@drcressey) has invited me to present to a number of pre-service teachers this Thursday night. The theme will be the tech-connected classroom. Later in the month, I'll present at MassCUE, Massachusetts' popular yearly tech conference. My presentation for MassCUE is titled the 24-7 Classroom.

The slide show above captures the essence of both presentations which is to create a seamless line between the classroom and learning outside of the classroom by providing the learning community, students, families, community members, and leaders, with the links and learning to access, employ, and create best tools with which to reach and share the goals they're aiming for.

As the presentation demonstrates, technology is the glue that connects the learning community to each other and to the many tools that assist, prompt, develop, and communicate learning. This is an important step in the learning evolution because we know that the more technology is integrated into the fabric of society, and education in particular, the more learning will move beyond the four walls of what is still known as the typical classroom. By adopting a 24-7 mindset with regard to education, teachers will prepare their students and themselves for the new world learning.

This new world of 24-7 access, multiple tools, and worldwide connection has the potential to educate with much greater success than in the past simply because this access offers limitless avenues to learning. Unlike days of old, students will not be limited by geography, learning style, physicality, development, or interest, instead the learning journey will be much more available to all.

The key to this evolution is the way we guide, coach, develop, and deploy tools, strategies, and encouragement. All who educate today including parents, community members, teachers, leaders, and students, have a responsibility to guide with care and positive intent using the best of their abilities and knowledge. While tech alone will not suffice, teaching without tech is absolutely insufficient since you're limiting the education of so many who can profit from technology's broad reach.

Hence, I advocate that all educators and tech developers begin to incorporate a 24-7 mindset into the work they do so that anyone at anytime anywhere can access the valuable tools they need to reach the dreams they have for their own life, community and the world.