First, technology is not a panacea, it enables schools to provide greater individualization which is the focus of much of the above. Learning how colleagues effectively individualize through technology will just be part of “the work,” not a stand-alone discipline. Second, social networking is creating communities of “early adopter” teachers beyond the walls of your organization. Teacher preparation programs can help connect their educators to the best “influencers” of education technology in the field via Twitter and other communities. EdModo, for example, has done a good job getting teachers to blog about their experiences with emerging tools.
A couple of quick takeaways for me are that it's nice to see professional development called out as something we need, but we really have to get away form the paradigm of thinking it's something we do "to" teachers or is done "to" us. The other takeaway I have after reading this is around a question I've asked before. If we're truly "blending" our teaching and environment, what does the space look like? How can we professionally develop as teachers to be better prepared to adapt and modify our existing learning spaces to better meet the needs of a flexible, student centric, tech infused learning environment? If shifting the ENTIRE teaching model paradigm upside down is NOT an option, what is? Is this something that needs to be built, modeled, and then iterated? I culled some nuggets from the reading.
