I recently returned from Africa, where I taught at a small elite football academy in the Eastern Region of Ghana for 8 months. Our goal, was to provide 52 pupils - ages - 9 -16 - with a first rate education.
One of the greatest challenges we faced was preparing our students, who are often up for scholarships in the US and UK to elite boarding schools, with a 21st century education. I do not mean to say that Shakespeare has lost its value, or that textbooks have become irrelevant. One of the biggest problem we faced was integrating technology into there learning process. For example, when I thought about typing speed, I thought of resumes for secretaries on Mad Men, but with Facebook and the Internet America's youth has typing skills by 13 that shocked me.
Simple things like typing, searching the Internet, sending an email have become necessities for functioning as citizens in our global society. But, the technology available in the US - Internet speed alone - provides educators and students with unique ways to improve learning outcomes. This is a gift we must take advantage of in our classrooms.
I enjoyed reading about your experience you had in Africa. It is so true if you are not exposed to technology it is hard to accomplish simple task on a computer. In the US technology is available and widely used in education that impacts learning positively. Every classroom both in schools or colleges has a computer with internet access or TV. Not all countries are abundant with technology, especially up-to-date. When I was in my country I remember the internet was so slow that I could hardly enjoy working at my computer.
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