Mature’s what they called us at EdTechTalk. I’m on the plane, Delta flight 1091 on my way to Cincinnati for a one hour layover before heading on to NECC in San Diego. And one of them (Dave or Jeff) comments that during one of their webcasts recently, they started looking at the participants profiles and were surprised that most of them were in the late forties to early sixties. I certainly fit into that range.
Why is that? The tech movement is supposed to be driven by young folks, where past thirty, they’ve already reached their prime. Yet, according to this very unscientific, yet ponderable observation indicates that in the education field, the innovators seem to be at the end of their careers rather than the beginning.
Anyone care to speculate?
One brief idea occurs to me. When I was in education school, in the 1970s, The philosophy of teaching was much more open to experimentation. It was far more liberal in terms of placing more emphasis on the learning experience rather than measurable learning outcomes. I’m not saying one is better than the other, though I have my opinions. But it seems to me that those philosophies of education are far more fertile to the new technologies than today’s standards-based high stakes testing environment.
Anyone care to speculate?
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Dave,
This IS an interesting observation!
There are probably many factors, but “The Geezer Phenomena” might have to do with where we are in our professional lives at this point.
Older educators may not have the daily “going toe-to-toe in the classrooms with students” any longer, and may be assuming leadership roles. Roles that don’t have to observe the bell schedule, district/regional mandated minutiae, and at the same time are people who are trusted with ready access to the school’s technology equipment. We have positions that afford us the time/space to consider the possibilities and the experience to do the decision-making.
Dave as what I guess is regarded as a youngy…. I thought I could comment from a younger generations perspective. I agree with the observation, I think the younger generation of teachers are far too focussed on the administrative requirements as a teacher and don’t have the time to give deep and serious thought to effective use of technologies. Young teachers are too worried about what the state requires or what the administrator requires. Older generation teachers have been in the game long enough to know that they can push the boundaries and try new things – and get away with it. I guess the older generation of teachers are the rebels…. and all power to them!! Imagine the power and effectiveness of having some of the “rebels” encouraging the younger generation who are digital natives to rise up and tell the new story together!!
I have proven this since moving out of the classroom. I have so much more time now to focus on instruction and delivery. As a young classroom teacher I just didn’t have the time to focus on such things. I just came out of university where I was fed theory all day long and just wanted to do stuff…. and probably forgot about the value in sitting down and considering the value in theory, which could quickly impact on my practice.
Dave
I think that the technological revolution is being led by the more ‘mature’ because they are sick of teaching the same old way for so long :-). Maybe also because the more mature have been involved in many more revolutions than the younger generations who can’t seem to find a cause to fight for. Let’s hope that we can band together our younger teachers in the fight to make learning relevant for our students.
Jane Nicholls
David, sorry this is so late – tried to comment before, but it didn’t stick…
Anyway, as a geezer teacher (I’m a touch older than you, I think 🙂 ), I agree with the idea that younger teachers have way too full a plate when they just start out. On the other hand, the only other teacher blogging with students in Seattle besides me this past school year was a first year teacher – who used classblogmeister. I showed her where to go to get started, and next thing I know, she’s blogging with her kids – didn’t ask me ONE question. So, who knows?
I will say that the reason more classroom teachers are not involved as leaders in the web 2.0 movement is simply, time. Time to reflect and write? Classroom teachers don’t have it, at any age. – Mark