Change driven by student expectations

In the mid '90s when the Internet was still rather new, my district took the audacious step of giving our middle school students email addresses. Student/staff communication was the goal and despite some skepticism, things worked out. Well, the tech director kept his job, anyway. The high school staff, however, could not be convinced that their students should be given accounts.

Fast forward to the beginning of the next school year when the previous year's 8th graders became freshmen. Accustomed to having email, the freshmen demanded retaining their accounts - and the upper classmen thought that if these wimpy 9th graders had email, they certainly should as well.

Student expectations led to providing all classes email addresses before the second week of school.

As an increasing number of our classroom teachers become more skilled in using technology as a part of instruction, I expect student expectations to drive change as well. The use of digital resources, especially our learning management system, in conjunction with our 1:1 program and technology-infused elementary classroom, are helping teachers do things in increasingly student-friendly ways.

I can just hear these comments...

Last year our teacher allowed us to choose the topic of our research paper, our means of communicating our findings, our means of assessing our own work.

Last year our teacher had use take some quizzes to make sure we ready for the next unit.

Last year our teacher created videos of lessons so we could watch and re-watch them at home.

Last year our teacher put links to all the class readings in Schoology so they were easy to find.

Last year our teacher allowed us to submit our work digitally as a shared GoogleDoc so we didn't have to print.

Last year our teacher encouraged us to practice communicating using video, photos, sound, and graphics.

Last year our teacher kept the grades and assessments up-to-date so I knew if I had any missing assignments.

Last year our teacher allowed (even encouraged) us to read e-books from our school library as well as the public library.

So what about this year, teacher?

I expect parental and administrative expectations will also grow when some teachers use technology well and others do not. But it will be student expectations that may prove to be the most difficult to ignore, and therefore create systemic change first.