Digital-Age Teaching Professionals

A Self Analysis

As I measure myself against the expectations of the ISTE, I see myself as a work in progress. Yes I promote student collaborations in the virtual and F2F world, I design and adopt learning experiences using technology; I encourage students, parents, and colleagues to dwell on similar paths – but I am in no way an accomplished leader.

I am an explorer collecting valuable nuggets of knowledge in my quest. There is a lot of technological know-how that is very alien to me and perhaps will always be. But I would like to learn enough to be able to help my students find their footing in the digital world.

The 1996 Manifesto by the New London Group made a lasting impression on me when it stated that “The role of pedagogy is to develop an epistemology of pluralism that provides access without people having to erase or leave behind different subjectivities. This has to be the basis of a new norm.” I want my teaching to not make my students conform to my ideas but for them to examine my ideas through their subjectivities. I also want to encourage their diversity by being able to provide a multi modal way of teaching and learning.

In other words I want to learn to design and develop digital age learning experiences for my students. Such knowledge will help me model and promote such learning experiences in society and in the teacher community. Examining the nuggets of knowledge available to us through this course I think the most effective tools at my grade level might be creative mashups [Rip, Remix, and Feed] and communication tools and learning through social media. It is in the early intermediate grades that students venture out to explore the communication tools and social media in the Web 2.0 world. It would be helpful to show the students a responsible, creative, and educational ways of applying these tools and to showcase their learning.

Reference:
New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *