“When I was young I had a phonebook, not a Facebook”

Mr. Bill Hamblett believes that critical thinking is one of the aspects kids in Kamloops need to learn

Mr. Bill Hamblett believes that critical thinking is one of the aspects kids in Kamloops need to learn

He opened the door and I sat in front of him. he was wearing a pair of glasses and a blue dark t-shirt. Mr. Bill Hamblett, Distric Principal of Leadership and Education in School Distric No. 73 , was enthusiastic that day, he wanted to talk about technology.

“Technology is pervasive, and it is everywhere. the teacher is no longer the one who only has the information, because students can Google it or find it somewhere else”.

So, with all this access to information that kids are having, which challenges the education system in Kamloops is facing ?- I Wondered

It took him ten seconds to think about it and said:

“I think that one of the most important aspects with the introduction of technology in the education system in Kamloops is the critical thinking. When I was a History teacher – he shown excitement to talk about his past- there were lots of historical sites where students could get information. So I asked them to find on internet who murdered John F. Kennedy.

Some of the sites said that the aliens killed him”

Then I realized that critical thinking consisted in not believing all the things that you can find on the internet.

“The problem with technology is not the information, the issue is that there are lots of it, and we have to know how to use it.” – he affirmed.

So, if you were a teacher, how would you use the technology in the class?

“I’d put information online, instead of using the chalkboard. Additionally, I would show information that I found on YouTube. I would also encourage the students to use a blog and again, have critical thinking- he emphasized.

When he mentioned blogging, because is one of the things that new journalists are starting to do, I wondered about the future of the handwriting. What will happen with it? Will digital natives forget how to write on a piece of paper because of technology?

“I don’t know if it will ever be lost, because you are taking notes in this interview, you are writing. I know that my mother’s hand writing is very nice in comparison to mine, she grew up in a time when computers did not exist but typewriters, so I can see that she writes in a more elegant way than I”.

This gave me the feeling that is not sure if handwriting will disappear, but at least it is clear that our writing style is different.

Would you consider that kids are more intelligent than before because they have more access to information? or they are just different?

“I think that they are just different. Because they have lost certain knowledge, the traditional one. If you look in Canada, Kamloops was much more rural than now, agriculture was much stronger. Nowadays the people have left the mills because they want to work in the urban areas.

So, if you ask a group of students how to milk a cow, probably they won’t know how to do it.

We are much more interconnected now- I thought.

“The communication nowadays consist in a digital interaction, but this is very different from my generation. When I was young we had a phonebook, not a Facebook.

My kids always say to me : old people phone, but we prefer to send a message, so text me.

This is how the new generations are communicating”

Education system in Kamloops

In that part of the interview I felt that I had all the information I wanted from him, but there were sill aspects from the education system in Kamloops that concerned me in relation with the introduction of new technologies.

Would you think that there should be capacitation in the new technologies for the kids nowadays ?- I wondered

“That is interesting, I do not know exactly about them but I’m sure that they are out there. I am not sure that we have done them before, but I think that is going to be an attempt to embed those skills”.

And will the education system in Kamloops be adapted to the digital natives?

“I think that it is a challenge, we do have a technology coordinator for the District, and one of the things we have thought is the increase of technology in the lessons. There has been a proliferation of smart boards and smart technology in our schools”

With smart boards and all this ideas of technological classes I asked him to give me more details about the changes in the education system.

“I cannot guarantee the future, I don’t have that crystal ball, but all I can say is that some teachers will maintain blogs and they will post their assignments on internet”.

And then I wanted to finish with this question: Which suggestion will you give to teachers about the usage of technology?

With a polite smile he said:

“You do with your comfortable doing and your opportunity to learn. Use technology as a way to engage students”.

My recorded indicated that it passed twenty minutes. I stopped the record and I asked him to smile for a photograph I will take him for my blog.

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