After
completing this course, my views about technology in the classroom have
developed and strengthened immensely. An underlying theme that I feel is
essential for all educators to keep at the forefront of their pedagogy, is
technology must be integrated throughout learning and teaching, and not just
used as an addition to a lesson. In order to accomplish this, we as teachers
must be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to prepare our
students to survive in the 21st century. According to Schrum and
Levin (2009), “technology will influence both what and how students learn and
teachers teach” (p. 6). No matter what students are learning, they should be
constantly given the opportunity to utilize technology and gain 21st century skills simultaneously.
From
this course, I have found that there are innumerable amounts of technological
resources, equipment, sites, programs, etc., which will open the door to many
learning opportunities for both students and teachers, if utilized in the
classroom. Also, I feel it is important to use these tools in a way that
fosters the development of 21st century skills, including
communication and collaboration. When I created a blog for my website, I felt
that it would be very beneficial in a classroom, and successful at having
students work together, ask questions, extend knowledge, and be engaged in the
task at hand. Schrum and Levin (2009) argue, “we haven’t yet embraced some of
the tools that we can use to prepare our students to learn and thrive in the 21st
century” (p. 7). In my opinion, this needs to be accomplished by teachers becoming
models and advocates of the tools we are implementing in the classroom before
we can influence our own students.
Since
I was first introduced to Google Docs it has been a tool that proved extremely
useful when collaborating with others in my own schooling, and I have extended
it into my workplace as well. It allowed for cooperation and communication in a
convenient way and made projects/assignments relevant to my own life.
Similarly, I witnessed the site Edmodo being utilized in my student teaching,
where students were given an assignment, not even told to collaborate on the
site, but it came naturally to them to communicate with each other through the
site. Seeing this shows me that students growing up in the 21st
century have so many skills, and we need to embrace them in order for them to
be innovative in their schooling. We have a long road ahead of us and an
immense task at hand. We must be prepared to first change our own thinking, be
reflective, innovative, creative and open-minded in order to have this same
impact on our students and influence the future.
