Clarence Fisher- Small Town Technology

We had the opportunity to have Clarence Fisher skype into our class (in the midst of a snowstorm) from Snow Lake Manitoba. Although he only spoke for 20 minutes he made some really good points, about small town life and the use of technology in the classroom.
Clarence talked about how people often see small town or rural schools as being out of date, or old fashioned when in comes to technology, but in actual fact this is not true. They too have just as much access to the world around them as someone from a big city. The means at which they obtain this information may be slightly different like not actually going to a museum but perhaps taking a virtual tour instead. People from rural areas use social media, text, have iPads etc. so why not incorporate this into the classroom. This is the new way of learning. Clarence talked about how memorization is in the past. Why should students have to memorize when they can just go to Google, type something in and a whole list of information pops up? If this is how students are going to learn we should teach them how to find the "right" information, and how to best utilize the information their research has given them. As a future educator I want to embrace this new way of learning, and if I can get students to know where to find useful information, and also contribute to the wealth of knowledge on the internet then I think I could consider some of my teaching a success.
It was good to hear from someone who lived and taught in a rural school and that all the same types of opportunities are available for there classes as those who live in a city center, in terms of technological resources and connecting with the world around them. As teachers we have to remember this and think of ways we can make exciting opportunities happen for rural students too.

-LB