It has been such an insightful few weeks as I've been reading blogs from my classmates and colleagues on so many different topics. I've read some great insights on what it means to be a 21st Century teacher, and I thought I would provide a few of my thoughts.
Valuing diversity in the classroom is an important focus when we are discussing what it means to be a 21st Century teacher. Having a stereotype-free classroom can be a daily challenge. With Ontario having one of the most diverse student populations in the world, it is so important that all teachers take into consideration the impact that everyday decisions can have on students’ thoughts and perceptions about the world around them.
As teachers, we often use interactive presentation software to enhance our lessons or collaboratively engage the class in an activity. During my Smart Board Level 2 Certification, I was planning a grade one activity on Smart Notebook software when I noticed something that I had never really paid attention to before. In the picture gallery under the people category, it was apparent that most clip art visuals had a gender bias. About 90% of the clipart available were male dominated in stereotypical jobs such as police officer, judge, construction worker, janitor, athlete, firefighter, etc.
We teach our students that they can grow up to be whatever they want, and that there is no such thing as ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ jobs, but at the same time we may contradict ourselves by the clipart that we repeatedly use in our everyday lessons. It may seem like such a little issue but if you think about software being so widely spread, it makes me wonder how many teachers are using clipart on a mass scale without giving it a second thought to what may be leaking into our students’ subconscious.
Technology is moving at such a fast pace but shouldn’t the concepts that go along with 21st Century thinking accompany this. As edtech teachers we are so wide-eyed to all the possibilities that new technology can bring to education, but there is obviously still some things that are lagging behind.
As teachers we want to inspire dreams into our students, not limit their imagination. Let’s not forget about the “little” things that we can do to change the next generation for the better.
Using appropriate clipart may be something that we have always overlooked, especially when we are so rushed to plan our lesson activities. If you search hard enough, you will probably be able to find clipart to suit your needs, but that takes time of an already busy teacher’s day.
Shouldn’t bias-free clipart be the standard in all software?
