Happy New Year! Welcome to 2015.
It seems like only yesterday that we were ushering in the new decade after the threats that the world would end over Y2K. But now we’re firmly in the 21st Century. Could there be a more overused, and meaningless term than “21st Century Educator“?
I tried to put it into perspective by going to the OSAPAC website to see what software titles were licensed way back then but the archive doesn’t go back far enough. The list only goes back to 2003 when Tab + was licensed. Oh, and OSAPAC doesn’t call them software any more. They’re now known as Digital Learning Resources. Catching my eye as I scanned the list was StarOffice which begat OpenOffice which begat LibreOffice, still the best desktop productivity suite across all platforms. But, LibreOffice sure doesn’t compare to StarOffice which was ground breaking at the time.
But, even then, those who were using those software titles were “21st Century Educators”. In fact, many of the students in those classrooms are now “21st Century Educators” on their own now.
All this reinforces my point. Is the term even meaningful? Are the classrooms the same? Is teaching the same? Is technology the same? Are our expectations of a literate graduate the same?
Should the call to action be one of “let’s lose this term”?
I was excited this morning during my reading. I saw an article “The Profile of a Modern Teacher“. This is good. I like the concept of teaching for the “now”, “current”, “modern”, … It’s a good infographic and I would urge you to read and enjoy it.
How much in that infographic do you see in yourself? How much in that infographic leads you to know that you can grow as an educator?
Sadly, the words 21st Century do appear near the top.
But, moving along. Could we just drop the term? I like “modern”, “current”, “now”, “evolving”, … To me, 21st Century Educator doesn’t hold the test of time. For those of you who can remember the software and the classrooms of 2003, are they the same now? Hardly (I hope). We’ve got so much better, realizing that it’s not necessarily the software that makes the classroom – it’s the connections, the constructions, the learning, the thinking, …
If you do long for the olden days, check out “Do You Remember“. Thank goodness, we’ve moved along since then!
doug --- off the record 