May 16 2009
NETS: Am I a digital age teacher?
Am I a Digital Age Teaching Professional?
As a high school science teacher, I have many questions to consider when I engage in instructional design. How am I going to address the curriculum? What learning theories and corresponding pedagogy should I subscribe to? How am I going to address the needs of diverse learners? How am I going to create engaging lessons with educational value? Additionally, I need to consider which educational technologies I should employ. With the commercialization of educational technology, today’s teachers have more technologies available to them than ever before. In this burgeoning digital age, educators not only have a wealth of new, educational technologies for their tool kit, they must also prepare their students to be literate and competitive in a digital world..
As such, I would like to evaluate my current teaching practice according to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS) published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). In the following I will reflect on how I am currently addressing a few of the listed competencies.
1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity; To inspire learning and creativity I employ “translation” activities in my practice. Translation activities involve students converting their content knowledge into another form such as a poem, rap, song or skit. Students must ensure they actually understand the content before they translate it into another form. Additionally, the activity requires students to be creative providing additional motivation. Digital technologies have enabled a wealth of new media through which students can translate their knowledge. Most recently, my students completed a translational activity using digital cameras to demonstrate the concepts included in an optics unit. In the future, I would like to have my students create digital stories instead of the traditional paper stories I have used in the past.
2. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments; So far, my design and development of digital age learning experiences has been limited to power point presentations, LCD projected animations and videos, and the occasional computer lab activity. I have recommended websites with online quizzes to help students review, but have never designed one myself. I am in the process of developing a teacher website for students and their parents, where they can access notes, assignments and other resources.
3. Model digital-age work and learning; As discussed above, I do use some digital technology in my lessons. I have started communicating with parents via e-mail. In addition to the website I would like to design, I would like to set up a discussion forum for my various classes where my students can collaborate and communicate.
4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; I am striving to stress proper citation of web resources. I could be better at modeling this myself. In the future, I would like to develop (or find) a good rubric with which to evaluate proper ciatation of information in student work.
5. Engage in professional growth and leadership; I like to think that taking a Masters in Educational Technology covers this one! As I become more competent and confident with using technology in my practice, I would like to become a technology champion in my school.
