I am a 21st Century Learner

As I go through my pre-service teaching program, I am constantly reminded about improving technologies and its use in the classroom. My future students will be 21st century learners, and I must be a 21st century teacher. I need to be a teacher that encourages exploration of information through tools such as the internet or other programs on computers, phones, tablets, etc. It's a buzzword on twitter, and you can find many sites dedicated to helping current teachers embrace the change in students (one great resource: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/).

But I too am also a 21st century learner. I embrace the use of my smartphone in class to google search a term I don't know, I use my TI-Nspire to quickly generate a dynamic geometric image to explore a theorem, I use my laptop to collaboratively work on assignments with fellow students, I collaborate with other students around the globe to come to a greater understanding of information.

• So why are my teachers discouraging the use of technology in my classrooms?
• Aren't I supposed to be modeling proper technology usage for my future students?
• Why am I told to put my phone away when I use it as a crucial tool in my education?
• Why are my fellow students being told to close their laptops when we are collaborating on a presentation and discussing relevant issues to the course without disrupting others by chatting aloud?
• Why am I being told to close out of facebook when the entire lecture is connected through a common social media tool so we can share articles, communicate ideas, and collaborate? Have you not read any studies about using facebook in the classroom?

I am deeply appalled by the classroom culture in my courses these past few weeks. Going around a lecture full of pre-service secondary education teachers and telling us to put our technology away is not the solution to attention issues. Climbing over desks in a full lecture is not the way to wake up a student who has fallen asleep. I have not been able to pay attention to a word the lecturer has been saying these past two weeks because of this, and the only reason I know what is going on is because I can follow along with the presentation slides on my laptop.

If I have learned one lesson in this course so far, it is if you want to or not to pay attention, you must be awake and do it the old pen-and-paper way. All technologies are considered distractions.