Workshop on learning 2.0

I recently participated in a workshop dealing with learning 2.0 by Jim Dunne. I found it very interesting to see the progression from "learning 1.0" to the current learning system. I strongly believe that technology is very useful in education. For my new job, I was struggling with reaching some of the "good" kids who want to learn during classtime due to the numerous behavior issues I experience on a daily basis every period of the day. For these students to learn outside the classroom has shown me that not all my kids are heading in the wrong direction, despite the lack of homeworks I receive in a timely fashion. I used google sites to create my own avenue for those students to take advantage of extra credit opportunities and ultimately continue their education at home. I feel that if this is successful, then my presence in class unfortunately will become a thing of the past. This is why I took on this second masters. I am looking to get myself out of the classroom, due to the political bureaucratic nonsense I have to deal with as a classroom teacher. My dream is to be the technology supervisor who helps teachers in my situation now to reach those kids not having to worry about having my lesson plans completed every day for example. We discussed how this is the wave of education and where ultimately we may be putting teachers out of jobs. If we are able to meet in an online room on Marratech, why do we need to subject kids to confined desks in a classroom in an area where the school is literally unsafe? I think using technology in the classroom can be applied to every socio-economic area, but I truly believe it will help to level the playing field for the schools who can and the schools who can't. In this economy, my students will end up working as dish washers and housekeepers (these will be the students that graduate middle school) As for the ones that do not graduate middle school, they will be unemployed collecting welfare checks from taxpayers like me. This is a scary situation if not controlled properly.

Ultimately I was really taken back about how easy it is to replace a classroom teacher with a technology driven curriculum, lesson plans from a website, and ultimately the teacher would not even need to be in the classroom (a projector and a video feed will be sufficient) Even though these web 2.0 programs are free of charge, one day we are going to be hit with fees for these programs that ultimately make our jobs as teachers easier. I look forward to taking more workshops about the direction of technology in education.