Part of becoming a teacher in the 21st century includes a need to technological proficiency. Requirements such as this class at university, technology requirements for licensure, and educational standards that require technological implementation in the classroom all require future and current educators to work with technology in the classroom. Technology can also enhance the planning and implematation of lesssons, helping to lighten the load of teachers. Online tools are available to help streamline administrative tasks and websites are available to help with lesson plan organization and development. Students may use technology in the classroom as an extension of their everyday lives and to help learning development. Technology can be used to reinforce learning in the classroom by building upon knowledge and skills taught to them. It can be used to provide individualized checks on learning progress in situations where teachers may not have time to work one on one with students to check their understanding of material. The great amount of diversity in the classroom influences the students need for technology. Students with different learning styles may be presented material in different ways to help maximize their understanding. Students with disabilities may also help find technology helpful for their learning and many accomadations may be made to help them use technology as well.
The ISTE standards are a set of guidelines developed to create skills and qualities in students that will equip them to work in a technological world, and for teachers to ensure professional competency with technology and to positively influence students relationships with it. The standard that I liked the most was "Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and the opportunities of living, leaning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal, and ethical." I really enjoyed seeing this standard on there because I think students tend to overlook the impact that their online usage can have on other people. The internet can tend of have a sense of annonymty and I think it is important for students to learn to behave in an ethical manner when using technology. The standard that I felt the most out of my skill set was "Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working with teams locally and globally." I think it may be possible to have students collaborate locally in the self contained classroom environment but working on a more global scale seems difficult. I am not really sure how to go about moving collaboration to this larger scale and what kind of technology would be most effective in doing so.
Digital native is someone that has grown up with technology being apart of their cveryday life and ineratcions; this includes individuals who may not remember a time without computers or cellphones. I think that this is an appropriate label for today's youth because technology is becoming increasingly engrained in our daily lives and children are beginning to interact with technology at younger ages. Digital natives are also categorized by their fearlessness in trying technology and favor a hands on "try it" approach to learning new forms of technology. I have seen a difference in the way my classmates and teachers would use technology. Teachers often found it more difficult to navigate with technology and would encounter problems that a student may not. In my experience a teacher often asked students for assistance when they were facing technical problems in the classroom. My teachers often stuck to more traditional presentation tools such as PowerPoint, where students tended to be more creative when doing presentations and using different platforms such as Prezi. I am sure the same issues that we faced with our teachers will be relevant when we become teachers ourselves. Our students will be most likely more knowledgeable in new technologies.
"I think it may be possible to have students collaborate locally in the self contained classroom environment but working on a more global scale seems difficult. I am not really sure how to go about moving collaboration to this larger scale and what kind of technology would be most effective in doing so."
ReplyDeleteYou are right in that local is easier, and certainly a good use of technology. But there are many sites that connect classrooms around the world. Skype is a popular tools. But any collaboration tool, ex. Google Docs, or internet publishing tool, like blogs, can be used. Message boards are dedicated to interested teachers.