If you didn’t get onboard in the beginning, you are already miles behind, but you can catch up.
My dad at the age of 70 finally got a smart phone. The tipping point was his friend saying that one day he would wake up and the world would have left him behind.
He had a lot to learn in the first year with that tiny Samsung, and he still battles, but if he had been on an old brick phone in March this year he would be lost now in this time of the COVID-19 lockdown.
But is there also a tipping point in the other direction?
In my environment I have seen children put down their gaming to join lessons because they have just had enough of using tech in that way. As an educator I am over the moon. Kids have voluntarily put down their biggest distraction (possibly addiction) and chosen to join the class and the learning.
How are teachers responding to this?
I hope they are noticing and I hope that they are using this opportunity to Dead Poet Society the hell out of their lessons. I know WE are, and it is working like a charm. Just today when a Zoom lesson timed out we were flooded with WhatsApp tears and nooooooo’s. We had left them on a high and they wanted more. So of course we gave it to them.
Teachers cannot afford to be sleeping on the job in this time. Many kids are where we have been wanting them to be for years now, ready to learn.
Now is the time to dial up our passion for teaching, jump on the desks and inspire!