“How could we rethink our K-12 curriculum for the 21st century, symbiotically combining human strengths with the most powerful technology strengths?”
I'm not sure that we need to rethink our curriculum, but perhaps re-evaluate how we teach it using technology and keeping our students' strengths in mind.
Technology has so much to offer us. It can make history come alive, zoom in on tiny molecules, turn written text into audio and vise-versa, and solve math equations. It can be manipulated to do just about anything we could ever want it to (if we know how). If all this technology is at our fingertips and is where the future is headed, we as educators should be working to incorporate it into the lessons we are teaching the decision makers of tomorrow. We should be taking advantage of technology in the classroom as a way to broaden our students' horizons, teach them more about the world around us, and as a tool to help them express their ideas.
For any symbiosis to work, however, the two sides need to be working cooperatively and are often mutually beneficial. In order for this to be a symbiotic relationship we need to give something back. How can we give back to technology? Personally, I've watched hundreds of videos made by students and teachers that teach a concept through a song or a short play. I have read more teacher blogs than I can remember to gather ideas and inspiration for my own classroom. These are things my students could do. These are ways that I could contribute to the ever-growing plethora of resources available at just the click of a button. Perhaps one of my students will invent something new one day if they are able to explore technology today. Although giving back to technology seems more difficult than benefiting from its power, I think it is important to consider.
I have not yet fully formed a vision of what this symbiotic relationship would look like. However, I believe that technology and human strengths can work together to foster higher level thinking in students who are challenged to explore and be curious and who care about making a difference in their world.
I agree with Christine that our current students are going to be using much technology as they get older. We need to incorporate it into lessons when we can so they are exposed to it, and can learn from it. Technology can truly enhance many lessons, and it can especially benefit more visual learners. Many students nowadays seem to have trouble staying focused for long periods of time, and I think, as Christine said, by trying to incorporate technology when we can, it will make our lessons more engaging.
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