Teachers and Students meet in the Middle

The article "teachers and students meet in the middle" left me with two very different thoughts. One about roles in education and the other about technology in education.

At first I thought the article was about simply how teachers and students and swap roles temporarily. I think this is true and effective in the classroom. I think when students see teachers engaged in learning it validates that learning and being a learner is not just what you do as a student K-12. Students should know that teachers read for fun, take classes, and learn skills. Students should know I can lay carpet, read sci-fi and religious texts, and have taken adoption classes. It lets them know that we don't stop being learners at graduation or even at college graduation. In general students will be more open to discuss things with the teacher if the teacher is open to learning and listening to them. Some teachers (and other professionals) tend to take the stance that they are the expert. And in some circles they may be the expert, but the feeling of being an expert in psychology trickles down to all aspects of their social life such as politics or cooking. They come off as obnoxious and annoying. This doesn't work well for student learning. I was the kind of student that could overcome those teachers and still succeed but I always felt bad for the other students that were crushed by those teachers.

On to point number two about technology. The article sneaks in the idea of laptop schools. Schools where every student has a laptop. I think it will be a long time,very long, before all schools are like this. But the truth is that slowly schools will shift toward this. Those that can afford it and think it will work. As always it isn't about if the technology will work, but if it is used in the right way.