Drawing to a close...

Our class is coming to an end, but my techno journey has just begun.  I am off to a great start, thanks to you, Marialice. (Shout out!) You allowed us to play as we learned. It is a powerful approach, and one that also taught me how best to teach Netgeners. ( In fact, my biology students spent Friday's class playing and learning how to make their own student glogs on my edu.glogster.com site so that they can gain the skills needed to create one addressing a critical thinking question at the end of our unit on cell structure.  And they are loving it!) If you had not been so flexible and open-minded none of us would ever have had the time or energy to come this far on our techno journeys. Kudos to you!
 
As you know, I have been using this blog to document my adventures in cyberspace, and also in real life as I have tried to close the technological gap in my school.  I am happy to report that the time I spent first hounding and then collaborating with our IT guy has been time very well spent.  He and I are now getting along great, and we are currently working together every Wednesday morning to accomplish a variety of goals, including getting Schoology up and running for my school.  Here is an excerpt from an e-mail he sent to me two days ago:

...However, it is you who deserves the credit...your desire to push the boundaries and try new things makes my job (typically one filled with forgotten passwords and broken printers), much more interesting and rewarding.  See you Wednesday.

Cool, huh?  Who'd have thunk?  I am a boundary breaker! :-)


And that brings me to my final assignment, answering the question "Who are 21st century learners and teachers?" 
Well, I would say it is just that, to be boundary breakers.  It is to bridge gaps between people, between schools of thought, between various groups, organizations, countries and cultures, between IT guys and teachers, and most importantly, between students and their potential.  It is putting to work as many of the Web 2.0 tools as we can to help empower our students to become critical, collaborative, creative and innovative thinkers so they can build a better tomorrow for themselves and the world.  There are unlimited frontiers out there which our students may never see if we do not let them "out of the box."  As their teachers, we must overcome our own fears and venture out to learn the new territory ourselves.  Only then can we effectively guide our students to acquire the skills they need to learn and to express their thoughts and ideas safely and responsibly with the rest of the world.  
We also need to know when to sit back and let them teach us.  Teaching and learning are interactive processes. We are all on this great adventure together.  The world will never be the same as it was.  Nor should it be.  Change is good.  New frontiers are great if you are truly prepared for the journey that is to come.  It is our job as educators in the 21st century to embrace change.  We need to keep working, playing and exploring. We need to keep implementing and modifying what we find  to suit and enhance the abilities and interests of our students. 
We are the boundary breakers.  Here we come!!!