As educators in the world today we are surrounded by technology and
initiatives to use educational technology in our classrooms. Our students are adept at using this
technology, even if we are not. If you
spend any time in a high school, or even travel to the mall, all you see our
young people with their focus divided between their friends and the phone in
their hands. Students today have grown
up using technology, and want its inclusion in the classroom. By using Web 2.0 activities, teachers allow
students to use the resources they use every day. By purposefully incorporating these
activities into the curriculum, teachers meet the needs of their students by
allowing them to become digital citizens, and providing opportunities for
students to use the technology that they have come to incorporate into their
daily lives.
That being said, I am left thinking about what is an
educator in this digital age to do? The
answer to my question was provided when I came across the National
Educational Technology for Students (NET-S) guidelines for “digital age
learning.” These guidelines, developed
in 2007, layout six expectations that students should be able to accomplish. These categories are:
1. Creativity and innovation 4. Critical thinking, Problem solving, and Decision making
2. Communication and collaboration 5. Digital Citizenship
3. Research and information fluency, 6. Technology operations
and concepts
These six categories point us educators towards the categories that are
deemed valuable to students in the 21st Century. If technology is to be used the classroom, it
should be based on and fit with one of the six categories listed above. These general suggestions are furthered
refined by the NET-S
student profile. This profile is
then broken down by grade levels and provides suggestions for experiences with
technology and digital resources. These
suggestions are then aligned with the guidelines I referenced earlier.
I have found that the
best way to incorporate these technology standards into my curriculum, is not
to follow my district mandates, but to incorporate Web 2.0 activities. While ActiveVotes and being forced to create
a website, CAN add to student
engagement, in reality they only provide a meaningless hoop for teachers to
jump through. Only through authentic
integration of technology into the classroom is actual learning and 21st
century instruction going to take place.
Only when the teacher WANTS
to integrate technology into the classroom, are the best most authentic means activities
used and created, meeting the standards laid out in the NET-S.
Web 2.0 resources,
like Wikispaces, Edmodo and Google
Docs allow for instantaneous communication and collaboration by students
from anywhere in the world. The use of
these resources together allows for students to actively collaborate outside of
the classroom. When I presented my
students with the challenge of designing a wiki, I have found the results that
are produced are often times greater that I could have ever imagined. The extra time to collaborate and share
information through these resources, and the creativity provided often triggers
students to do more than is required.
Besides this enthusiasm for learning, these products when complete, meet
requirements in all six of the categories of the NET-S. As an example of some of these criteria that
this project meets, just look at the NET-S student profile.
1.
Select digital tools or resources to
use for a real-world task and justify the selection based on their efficiency
and effectiveness.
2.
Employ curriculum-specific
simulations to practice critical-thinking processes
- Model
legal and ethical behaviors when using information and technology by
properly selecting, acquiring, and citing resources.
- Create
media-rich presentations for other students on the appropriate and ethical
use of digital tools and resources.
5.
Configure and troubleshoot hardware,
software, and network systems to optimize their use for learning and
productivity.
In just this one assignment the students are able to meet all six
guidelines for technology use in the classroom, and hit five specific goals in
the student profile. With just a few
projects scattered throughout the year students are able to actively engage
with the learning, by assuming the role of teachers to their peers and others
in the community with the publishing of their work.
While I have
mentioned only one project and three sites, there are countless numbers of
projects and resources provided for educators.
As our society becomes more and more technologically dependent, we owe
it to our students to work to incorporate these technologies into our
classrooms. We are not only going to
provide them with a more authentic lesson, but we might, and I stress might,
just spark their imaginations and set them off on a path of learning that is
driven by their imagination and interests.
After all, is that not the goal for all teachers?