Digital-age teaching professionals

Consider the standards presented in the report issued by The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE): Redefining learning in a technology-driven world. June 2016.These are devised to prepare students for work and life in technology-dependent future, that is “empowering students to have a voice and choice in their learning”. Using the criteria developed in the ISTE (2016) document and in the Chickering & Ehrmann (1996) article, consider to what extent these reflect the competencies and skills you practice in your teaching and in your learning.

1. Which criteria for the technological competencies seem the most informative to you and applicable to your experiences?
2. What technological competencies are in demand and rewarded in your organization?
3. What do you see as the biggest challenge for the teachers and the students to professionally succeed in a “digital-age”, in technology-dependent environments?

Response:

Which criteria are the most informative & important for me?

Starting with Chickering & Ehrmann’s (1996)

• Good practice encourages connections amongst stakeholders: One of tech’s greatest affordances, from a conceptual lens, is connection. It can not only save us time, but break down social and cultural barriers that may not happen in traditional F2F learning. Collaboration can happen in asynchronous or synchronous fashion, regardless of location (yet arguable with censorship – see China). For me, this means greater perspective from cohorts and time savings when considering the lack in commuting before learning.
• Good practice develops reciprocity and cooperation among students: Big fan of constructivism. Individual accountability is important, but that doesn’t mean that social collaboration can’t be entertained. Children learn better from their peers. Collaboration promotes endless opportunities for anecdotal formative assessment and it develops skills of arbitration, making concessions and working towards a collective goal. Important and authentic life skills.
• Good practice uses active learning techniques: Learning experiences should always strive to be authentic and contextual. Burn textbooks; they’re the anti-thesis of this. I’m very passionate about the IB’s PYP curriculum and would find it hard to teach in any other model that didn’t focus heavily on conceptual-based inquiry. Sure it requires more work, but engagement and motivation is rarely an issue. I learn so much from every inquiry, too.
• Good practice gives prompt feedback: Timely, formative feedback is crucial. Tech affords us with 24:7 connections to learning and allows for peers to comment on work to drive learning forward. Yes, these are taught skills, but once developed and implemented, they’re magical. Reflection is such an important part in learning, that is often ignored. Learn. Practice. Reflect. Repeat (with some added dashes of healthy failure and frustration, too).

ISTE (2016):

• Computational thinking: Huge fan of Seymour Papert. In sum, students should be the boss of their technology and not vice-versa. Constructing and creating ideas is more fun and engaging than following someone else’s agenda. It promotes logical, “out of the box”, problem solving skills. Big fan of “tinkering” and understanding how things work. Break it down, rebuild it. understand it. Recreate or remix it.
• Social and emotional skills: I’ve been using the hashtag #grit for three years running now in China and was elated to see the ISTE put it on paper. Can’t tell you how resilient censorship and the Great Firewall (GFW) has made me. It has sparked a very successful business venture for me in learning how to code around the GFW and get people connected the right way. I’m equally a huge fan of Dweck’s work on growth mindsets. If you’re an elementary educator, I highly recommend Class Dojo’s recent five part mini-series, included with plenty of rich teacher questions and activities to go along with it.
• Digital citizenship: Or even digital literacy. How many curricula are teaching kids to link jump? After all, tech is supposed to promote efficiency, no? Furthermore, not only teaching our kids, but also parents, too. Think. Pause. Reflect. Comment. Or what about just being kind and positive? Important skills to promote in a “keyboard warrior” or “troll” world. I love sharing Google’s Online Safety Roadshow five part mini-series, along with this video from Common Sense Media with my children:

• Design processes and the maker movement: This combines with all of my aforementioned arguments discussed in the “Computational thinking” section.
• Global citizens: Can’t figure out how something works? Why is it broken? Tinker first. If you’re still stuck, go to YouTube or even contact the developer, personally, on Twitter! Technology also gives users a greater audience. Digital portfolio programs, like Seesaw, allow for an international student, in China, for example, to receive synchronous feedback from their parent on a business trip in Germany. Finally, collaboration is no longer bound to location. MET course project work is a fine example of this, with the help of applications like Google’s Apps for Education and, even Blackboard.

What technological competencies are in demand and rewarded in your organization?

Arguably all?! In the highly competitive and rewarding career of international teaching, these are concepts that any passionate edtech, specialist or generalist teacher should aspire to master or improve upon. Come occupational transition time, I’ll be looking for organizations/schools that are actively promoting these ideals.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for the teachers and the students to professionally succeed in a “digital-age”, in technology-dependent environments?

I’m going to ruffle a few feathers here, but unions and tenure systems that support teachers resilient to change. As educators, our modelling promotes learning. Adults who struggle with grit, perseverance and computational thinking themselves, will not benefit anyone. Technology is frustrating, even for self-proclaimed tech geeks such as myself. Even if you aren’t that comfortable with technology, put your swimmers on and dip your feet in the pool. Have a growth mindset. Remember, that you are just not great at it … yet. It takes time, practice, reflection and goal setting. Metacognition is an important notion here. Key point: Step out of your comfort zone!