Remember back when PowerPoint was the new and coolest way to do a presentation and the most intimate and exciting way to learn about people and cultures around the world was to have a pen pal? Now, don't get me wrong these methods of communication still have their place. Personally I value a handwritten note more than an email, it has a more intimate and sentimental value to me. Yet, in this era of rapid technology growth and expansion it would be irresponsible for us as educators to be too wary of new technology to explore its potential benefits. It is with this in mind that I have been looking at the Oregon Educational Technology Standards (OETS). It seems to me that these standards have been adopted in order to encourage (and require) educators to change with the times. If this "digital world" it what our students are growing up in, previous methods of teaching will need to be adapted to continue to effectively reach our students. Three standards that I can see myself exploring in the classroom are:
Creativity and Innovation- Within this standard there are so many things that students can do to make their education creative in a way that means something to them. Using excel or google spreadsheets students can create meaningful and colorful graphs to understand math concepts. The opportunities to create different types of presentations are endless; PowerPoint, Google Presentation, Prezi, UStream, Screenr, Xtranormal Movie maker etc. By allowing students to explore these different, if unconventional, methods of presenting a concept or idea we prepare them for much more than just a classroom presentation for a grade.
Communication and Collaboration- The Google Suite provides so many opportunities for online collaboration and communication. Students can collaborate from home on spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, etc. This would allow them to have more time and opportunity to collaborate without having to meet at school or coordinate schedules.
Research and Information Fluency- While the internet and technology provides many opportunities for information access, it also provides many opportunities for students to be mislead. As educators we can help students understand how to effectively search for information and wade through the distractions to find relevant and useful for a research paper for example. This will not only assist them with the amount of information they are able to find and access, compared with just being able to use library books, but will also provide them with lifelong skills for searching the internet and finding information on whatever they need in the future.
Honestly, I think one of the biggest challenges we face as educators is our own inadequacies and fears regarding the use of technology in the classroom. Sometimes we don't know how to use different forms of technology and it is definitely hard to keep up with but this is where we can use our students as resources. They probably spend more time on the computer or exploring the internet than we could ever imagine, so why not let them guide us? In order to get over these obstacles we need to be open to the ideas that our students can bring to us and infuse that with what we can show them. Its okay for technology exploration and meeting standards to be a two-way road where we learn to progress with our students as they learn to progress with us.
