Little Miss Cales does a great job challenging that attitude. It’s an attitude I come across daily from teachers as an Educational Marketing Manager who is trying to inspire and motivate educators to embrace digital teaching tools. Their stubborn resistance to integrate technology into their lesson plans and instructional styles comes across nearly as passionate patriotism. Surely if these resistant teachers do not fight to maintain outdated approaches to education, civilization will fall!
This article by educational consultant and author Marc Prensky does a great job illustrating the behind-the-scenes battle he faces with headstrong teachers across the world who insist card catalogs in school libraries must remain in case the power goes out.
These teachers insist their cause is to ensure “the basics” remain in schools. Prensky calls their attitude and reasoning “backup” education.
... what the teachers are really saying is this: “We don’t trust the technology of today, or the future. We don’t trust the world in which you kids are going to live. We believe the way we did it in our time was the “real” way, the only reliable way, and that’s what we want to teach you kids – “the basics.” (That’s why they all applaud the idiotic video showing people on a stopped escalator just standing there calling for help.)
