New Thinking in Education for a New Decade

Hello 2010 and the second decade of the 21st century. Also, welcome to my blog. I hope that what you read here will be enlightening, entertaining and thought-provoking.

First, a little about myself. I am a high school Social Studies teacher at a fairly traditional Catholic boys school in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. I have become known, jokingly, to some of my students as "Folmerica," a moniker I now take on with pride. I have been teaching for the past decade (I began teaching in 2000) and I have evolved as a teacher in many ways over that time. My goal, like any good teacher, is to expand my students experiences and to get them to think for themselves. Over the past few years I have experimented more and more in ways of doing that, in particular using various "web 2.0" technologies like podcasts, blogs and wikis. I think this has given them a good experience, but all the while, something was still missing; my overall educational philosophy was starkly traditional and "20th century." That is not good enough for the times we now live in.

Hence, the main purpose of this blog. Here, I will attempt to chronicle the revolution I want to create in my teaching and teaching at my school. My purpose is to bring 21st century education to the forefront of my practices and my school at large. What does that mean? I am not completely sure. But I envision an educational environment where students are directing their own learning, connecting and collaborating with others, learning across disciplines and curricula, creating and inventing their own understanding and meaning, critically thinking, and hence becoming what I call "digital global citizens." Along with documenting this journey, I will also include information about educational technology, current world events, and best practices as they relate to this developing vision.

A new decade calls for new thinking in education. The past decade has given us the tools, theory, and practice to make this reality. Now the question is, will we make it happen?