ISTE Standards Self-Reflection
Facilitating and Inspiring Student Learning and Creativity
I’m a big believer in social/collaborative learning and situated cognition, so I generally do my best to create collaborative projects that meet the learning objectives of classes rather than relying on course books and lectures. Unfortunately, with my position there are some very real constraints to this (norm-referenced grading across hundreds to thousands of students based on summative assessment), so I can’t always deviate as much as I’d like to.
Designing and Developing Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
In some of the classes that I teach (e.g. communications), I’ve managed to create a hybrid learning environment where the students go over the readings, watch the videos, and listen to the audio recordings through their course books and a wikispaces site. Because of this, classes of 30+ students that would normally spend 3 hours in a lecture instead come in smaller groups for 30-40 minutes each, which is spent on group/individualized coaching through formative assessment. Also, due to the nature of the class, there are no concrete answers so the students are able to develop their own presentation/interaction styles; I mostly just work with them to refine and polish their techniques. Also, after taking 512 last semester, I’m going to try to implement the use of graded student self-assessments in classes where I have more ‘creative license’ – I’m interested in seeing how it works!
Modeling Digital Age Work and Learning
I definitely need improvement in this area, at the moment I do this through making myself accessible to students (e-mail/office hours), allowing students to use technology in the classroom to complete projects and find information, and through incorporating various types of media/collaborative software into both the learning materials and the students’ projects themselves (e.g. YouTube, GoogleDrive, etc.).
Promoting and Modeling Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
I incorporate this into my teaching through modeling the correct use of learning materials through my own actions (ie. not copying/using copyrighted materials), and the use of wikispaces / hybrid-learning environments that allow weaker and more introverted students to do extra work outside of class to improve their skills. Also, since I am teaching in a culture that is not my own, I have had to adapt my teaching methods to teach my students more effectively.
Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership
Three letters: MET! 🙂 On top of that, I have taken a few MOOCs in my free time and attended professional development seminars; also, I work with my colleagues both formally and informally to improve the quality of courses that I teach.