Are teachers reaching the National standards for technology use?

When I review the teacher standards I always look at them as a challenge for my teaching. How am I going to better my teaching skills to challenge my students in their learning? What are the standards that I can strive to achieve. To me technology brings the element of fun to learning. Most of our students are natives to technology where technology is second nature to them. As for teachers, somet teachers are timid about using technology and are unsure of the benefits towards the learning progress of their students.

The national educational standards for teachers are reasonable standards for those teachers hesitant about using technology in their classroom. The standards provide a platform of what to focus on when presenting technology to the students. Although I am hearing more and more stories of how teachers are using technology to connect their students, there seems to be twice as many teachers who are not. Therefore these standards are not being met. Many of the teachers I encounter are concerned about using technology in the classroom, and after talking I began to realize that they are more concerned with the fact that they do not know how to use the technology or they state “they do not have the time to learn.” I find this a disservice to our 21^st Century Learners. My advice to them is, start small and see the benefits, then move on from there.  

That being said, you can go on the internet and find numerous stories and information on teachers using technology in the classroom to engage their students. Watch the video below to see how, through a two year grant, a whole school system is embracing technology and teaching.

The student standards can be met when technology is applied in the classroom. Using the internet and web tools allows students to explore their own knowledge, use critical thinking skills, make decisions, and provides an arena of collaboration between students and teacher. But most importantly, the use on-line tools in the classrooms allow the teacher to show by example of how students should act as digital citizens. The more and more students work on-line in a professional manner, the more and more they will realize how to behave in a proper manner. With all the cyber bullying stories, this is just another way to guide students in the proper way.   

Do you think these standards provide a starting place for teachers hesitant about technology use? What would you say to a teacher who does not want to use technology in the classroom about the standards? What do you think about the video? Do you think it is realistic for classrooms to be based on web tools? Do you think using technology takes away from or aids in helping those students who do not like to read or write? Why or why not?  

YEA!!! New Literacies for New Times.........

When we think about technology in the classroom we have to think how we use the technology and what benefit it is towards the learning progress of the students. The use of the internet opens up a whole new world of learning for students as well as an arena of tools for teachers. Most teachers are prone to give students a book report or a research paper to assess their knowledge on a topic. I was one of those teachers before I learned of the many on-line tools available. Like this article points out, what technology does is allow students to explore the topic (identify), determine the value of the information (evaluate), put it together to make sense (synthesize), and then share their findings with others (communicate). Technology takes the research paper to a whole new level. For instance, the use of Skype allows students to share their findings and then understand how their findings are valid by having discussions with students from all over the world. Or globalschoolnet.org links kids around the world. Nothing a research paper could ever do. Students become connected to the world outside their books and classroom and are able to apply real life to what they learn.

Click on the different links on the site Teaching with internet K-12: New Literacy for New Times site to see what teachers in all grade levels are doing to connect technology and literacy. It does not matter your content, most of these links you can find some example or information that can aid in making the connection for students. Being and FCS teacher, I found webenglishteacher.com to be very informative for how I can incorporate tools into my curriculum.

What link did you find useful? What web tool or idea would you see using in your class? How do you connect the internet to literacy in your classroom? What technology do you use in your class?