It has always been the goal of educators to create life-long learners and, in a world which seems to be changing at an ever increasing rate, achieving this goal seems to be even more important to the success of our students. I think everyone’s first tendency is to resist rather than embrace change, however…

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exits” — Eric Hoffer.

The role of educators seems to be shifting from leader to facilitator and the role of students is shifting away from passive learner to active collaborator. We need to be open to learning from each other (teacher to student, student to student, student to teacher and teacher to teacher). I’ve learned from experience that it is wrong to assume that all the students are tech-savy. Many of them still confine themselves to Powerpoint presentations – their comfort zone. Maybe a first step would be to take existing assignments and give students more latitude with respect to how they present their final projects. In every class there are usually a few tech-savy students eager to share their knowledge. Watching presentations which incorporate other types of tools (blogs, Photostory, imovie, etc. ), might encourage other students to try them out. Giving students an opportunity to be the “teacher” is empowering and much more likely to engage them.