Michael,+Jason,+and+Michael

= = Is it okay for teachers to be technologically illiterate in 2009? What should be done about those who are? media type="youtube" key="lWzMyKSIbFY" height="340" width="560" align="center"

The thought of a teacher being technologically illiterate in today's society is similar to a teacher the 1850s who was not trained. They may have known the subject but were not able to effectively educate the students. Due to the lack of training, the principals of education reform during that time period did not go into effect immediately and education reform was slow to take shape. The same scenario is evident today. Teachers need to use the tools available to them to properly educate the students. Throughout our educational training and numerous inservices, different styles of student learning have been explored. One common theme is that today's students learn differently than kids did in the past. To meet these needs teachers had to get away from past practice such as drill and kill, and class lectures. If one is going to change how they present the information to the students, they must also change the tools that they use. The use of technology enables us to do this. Therefore, if a teacher is not able to use technology they are holding the students back as well as educational reform. Education and technology go hand in hand in todays culture. It seems that you can't do one with out the other. Here lies the problem. Not every teacher has the availability of modern technology such as smart boards or promethean boards. These tools make life and utilizing technology in the classroom so much easier, but they are not the only way. We have listed below a few sites that can help teachers stay on top of their game and use technology/social media in their classrooms. These site are easy to use and also aid in furthering students progress in education.

[|Delicious: this is a website that allows you to organize your favorite websites through key words or "tags". You also are able to gain access to other people's favorite websites through common "tags".]

[|SlideShare: this website is a terriffic website for teachers in need of powerpoint presentations to use in their classrooms. You are able to search for a variety of topics by typing the information you are looking for and the odds are that someone has already created a presentation on this topic that you may borrow or edit.]

The time has come for us as educators to embrace all available technologies. Let us use every tool at our disposal to best educate our students, and in today's world, those tools include modern technology. Sure it may take extra time on our part, but our efforts will be rewarded with students who are more engaged, more connected, and more thoroughly educated.

We need to stop being in denial...

...sift through the jungle...

...and learn to embrace technology!

__**Key:**__ Michael F Michael M Jason C media type="youtube" key="ueO0o8BwsmI" height="344" width="425"