Are you a stuffer or a prodder?

by David Benson, Educational Technology Consultant ()

Isn't it amazing how far we've come with education in just a few short years? I was thinking about that while I was out doing a little research and came across an amusing observation by Robert Frost regarding teachers: "Teachers: two kinds: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move and the kind that give you a little prod from behind and you jump to the skies." I believe that I have been fortunate enough in my life to experience both kinds.

Now, those who filled me up with quail shot ... well, I won't discredit them, because they usually were the teachers who had a great deal to say. As for those who gave a little prod and made me jump to the skies ... in my experience, they tended to be the innovators.

You see, I'm one of those visual learners who prefers to do hands-on learning. In my extended career as a student, those prodders — the innovators as I saw them — were the ones who taught a hands-on approach. Don't just read me your paper — do it in PowerPoint. You want to gather opinions on the street for a project? Shoot it on video and edit together a news report. You want to illustrate an environmental problem? Get out your camera and create a photo presentation. Those types of teachers were the ones I tended to gravitate toward, those who challenged me to go a little further.

So what does all that have to do with my opening line about how far we've come? When I was a K-12 student, we didn't have PowerPoint. If we wanted to shoot video, we had to do it on 3/4-inch bulk U-matic videotape, and any photography had to be done with 35mm film. Today we have presentation software, digital cameras and digital video. What an exciting time to be a teacher. You get to do what you do best — teach kids — and you have some great innovative tools to tap into their (and your) creativity.

When I consider all the innovative tools teachers have at their disposal today and compare it to the tools I had, more famous words come to mind, at least in terms of my creations — from Shakespeare's MacBeth: "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."