Friday, February 11, 2011

TV / VCR








I am sure everyone reading this understands the title “TV / VCR.” However, fifty years ago some people would probably be a little confused. They may have had a good idea about the TV acronym, but maybe not the VCR. Do you know what the acronym stands for? Luckily we live in the era of Google, and I am sure with just a quick search you can easily find the answer even if you’ve forgotten. In fact, here it is “TV – television, VCR - videocassette recorder.” It's simple right?

A few months ago we learned that these devices would soon be leaving our classrooms. Some questioned, why? It’s natural to be apprehensive about something we have grown to know and accept leaving our midst. Although, I do believe the new solution will be a vast improvement on our current equipment, I do also understand there will be a learning curve even for the most tech savvy individuals. This begs the question, why get rid of something that works fine? A few years ago a wiser man than I once told me, “We can never really tell where the technology world will take us; all we can do is; do our best to learn along the way so we can be ready for whatever the future holds.”

This shift of removing our TVs and VCRs is abrupt, and symbolic of the major changes coming via technological devices to our current educational world. These new devices have and will continue to affect the way we work and learn in our schools. Change is constant and sometimes abrupt, but changing none the less. This is an opportunity as life long learners to forge ahead on this journey technology has set for us. Our challenge as educators is to model those same life long learning principles that our mission statement promotes. And that same quality we ask of our students each day when they show up in our classrooms. ZPS: Learning for Life.