Teaching 21st Century Learners

“The new 21st century learners must master more than the core curriculum to succeed in secondary and postsecondary institutions, as well as in the workplace” (Blair, 2012).  This course has opened my eyes to many new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  More than just that reading the articles and texts has inspired me to want so much more for my students. Richardson (2015) stated “[Teaching is] about providing the conditions under which our students can learn powerfully, productively, and freely, especially since so few of those conditions exist”.  Creating a space where students feel safe and loved will turn into a learning environment where students will be able to thrive. 

Technology is a part of our world and the faster we embrace it the more successful our students will be.  As a teacher, I have learned through this course that my professional responsibility exceeds teaching my students how to read.  One of the Technology Proficiencies states, “Candidates design learning experiences and foster learning environments that integrate various technologies” (Laureate Education, 2015).  I feel as though this course has helped me meet this goal further.  Through this course I have learned ways to incorporate Twitter into the classroom, create a blog and develop a lesson through a wiki.  Learning about all of these web 2.0 tools gave me so many ways that I can improve my teaching and lessons. It was nice to be on summer break during this course, Richardson (2015) said in his text “As you read this book, I have one request: Before you attempt to bring these technologies to your students, first be selfish about their use in your own learning practice”.  This is exactly what I did, I explored the tools that were discussed and became comfortable with them, I was overflowed with ways to use them in my classroom.

            One of the web 2.0 tools that really gave me excitement was the wiki.  I had never heard about a wiki before this course.  I was amazed at how easy it was to create and the content that could be included.  One potential roadblock I have in using a wiki in my classroom is myself.  Being in Kindergarten we have limited time on computers and the students need a lot of support.  I would love to create a wiki and let the students explore it individually, I will overcome my fear this next year and give them the opportunity to do this. They constantly amaze me I am sure they will flourish when given the opportunity.  This will give the students the opportunity to meet the ISTE Student Standard (2016) “Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies”. It also meets the ISTE Educator Standard (2016) of “Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs”.

            “As technology enables students to become self-directed learners, the classroom evolves from a teacher-centered to a student-centered environment” (Laureate Education, 2015h). One goal I have is that ‘My students will become independent users in technology, I will foster this by creating wikis that they are able to explore and learn to maneuver independently by the end of the year.’ I will achieve this by creating one wiki a month for social studies and let the students explore it independently. I will walk them through the wiki on the smartboard until they get more comfortable with it.  Another goal I have is ‘I will create an online community to foster relationships, in the beginning of the year with my parents and students by using the application ClassDojo.’  I am going to get my parents and students (if applicable) to join ClassDojo during meet the teacher night. I will create a presentation to walk them through it and the different ways they can use it to stay connected to our classroom.

            Through this course I have really seen the benefits of connecting parents and the community through using technology.  Parent and community involvement is crucial and technology gives us a great resource to help get them involved.  “There are many ways in which a teacher can use technology to improve the interaction, starting from scheduling to dissemination of student grade information, thus establishing avenues for parents to have a more meaningful role in education” (Ramasubbu, 2015).

 I think that I would be interested in looking into different ways of doing this and implementing them into my class.

References

Blair, N. (2012). National Association of Elementary School Principals: Serving all elementary and middle-level principals. Retrieved July 02, 2017, from https://www.naesp.org/principal-januaryfebruary-2012-technology/technology-integration-new-21st-century-learner

ISTE Standards for Educators. (2016). Standards for educators.

Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-educators

ISTE Standards for Students. (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students

Laureate Education. (2015). RWRCOEL Technology Proficiencies. Retrieved June, 2017, from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201760_02/1_Standard_Documents/1_Current_Documents/MSED/MSED_RWRCOEL_Technology_Proficiencies.pdf

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015h). The changing role of the classroom teacher: Part 1 [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Ramasubbu, S. (2015, January 15). Using Technology to Enable Parent Teacher Communication. Retrieved June, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suren-ramasubbu/using-technology-to-enabl_b_6479766.html

Richardson, W. (2015). From Master Teacher to Master Learner, 1st Edition. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781942496083/