Assignment question:
Try to assess your “technological proficiency’ using the criteria listed in the ISTE (2008) document and in the Chickering & Ehrmann’s (1996)  article, see to what extent these “ideal types” represent your digital competencies and skills asquired and used in your professional or educational context .

• Which of the sets of criteria seem the most informative and relevant to your experiences?
• Are there any other criteria that you normally use for assessing your technological proficienty?
• What are some of the “digital-age” skills that you plan to learn and start practicing, or want to further develop?

The ISTE standards (2008) provide the terminology fitting with current best practices and with 21st century learning, but my sense is that this is a bit daunting to any teacher to be everything within the standards and criteria listed. With that said, I believe that Chickering & Ehrmann’s 7 principles (1996), though more dated, still apply to today’s classroom and should be considered when integrating technology into classroom instruction and curriculum. As some others have outlined in their posts already (eg. Craig’s post), all of these principles can already be adapted to current practice. I find that the ISTE standards challenge educators to reach a higher level of the Bloom’s taxonomy in integrating technology into their teaching practice and in the classroom.

In terms of assessing technology proficiency, I currently do not use anything formally. Last year, I came across the Technology Integration Matrix created by Northern Arizona University, which guided reflection on my practice of technology integration. This has challenged me  in pinpointing my weaker areas of practice and helped me to reflect on what students in my classroom are doing with technology.

http://www.azk12.org/tim/docs/AZK1031_Matrix_Print.pdf

In general, I find keeping up with educational technology trends and tools difficult – there’s not enough time to really get to know many well, and I find it difficult to have an opportunity to apply specific knowledge right away as I am not teaching in a classroom currently. As well, though most teachers are teaching themselves new skills and tools in order to keep current, it is often very difficult especially when there are not fellow colleagues or an administration that support and provide what is needed for teachers to demonstrate these standards.

In my teaching practice, I hope to build a better teaching repertoire around digital citizenship and student-friendly collaborative tools. I have tried to keep up with tools that can enhancing my (currently hypothetical) classroom. I also see some of these tools as good ones to help support students’ skill development (e.g time management, organization of information, note-taking, managing projects, etc.)

Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S., C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. (web page)

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. (PDF)