Cheryl Buonome-Panzo, Neighbor

In a safe and positive environment, students in my collaborative classroom play with technological tools (i.e. interactive whiteboards, computers and various programs, and iPads) to develop 21st skills of collaboration, creation, reflection, while as in the words of Isaac Newton, a 17th century scientist, quoting a 12th century scholar Bernard of Chartres, “standing on the shoulders of giants”. It is important for students to recognize the ideas of the past to “awaken our sense of universality” (Ravitch 1981) while communicating intelligently in a global society. My literature classes read Shakespeare, Shelley, and Greco-Roman mythology to answer larger essential questions such as, “What is social justice?” “What is a folk tale, what is a myth?” and “What do these writings communicate about the cultures of their origin?” Students answer essential questions by writing traditional critical analysis essays and collaborating on class wikis. They demonstrate their knowledge and understanding on web 2.0 technologies such as Glogster. Technology in the classroom, especially through in social media, is a collaborative endeavor that continues to develop through communication.

Technology, just as a 21st curriculum is organic and dynamic. At this rapid pace, as educators, facilitators of knowledge, whether the subject is Science, Mathematics, Geography, Latin or Literature, we have a duty not to pretend the tools of technology are just like a pencil or notebook, or worse just a supplemental addition to teaching, but to develop “citizen(s) who will be asked to comprehend complex issues and as individual(s) who must live with constant change” (Ravitch, 1981) which are required in the paradigmatic shift that is occurring in the world and in education. Bringing the outside world into the smaller classroom environment both sparks interest and evokes prior knowledge to make the construction of the lesson relevant to the learner, i.e. student or teacher; this shift moving from a 19th century behaviorialist curriculum and industrial model of desks in rows and instructor at the blackboard to a constructivist curriculum and ecological classroom model allows for collaboration and the development of socially just, globally aware digital citizens, who “can affirm their commitment to democratic public life and cultural democracy by struggling in and outside of their classrooms in solidarity with others … in order to make schools more attentive to the cultural resources that students bring to the public schools” (Giroux 1994).