Teaching in the 21st-century

An increasing pressure in the field of education is  to incorporated a variety of technological tools into the classroom. As my formal education of the available technologies progresses, I have been compiling a toolbox of resources to bring along as I transition from student to teacher.  By continuing to fill my toolbox, I am progressing toward meeting the expectations of a 21st-century teacher and learning the skills required to fulfill Michigan Teacher Standard 7, technology operations and concepts, which includes the 'use of technological tools, operations and concepts to enhance learning, personal/professional productivity, and communication.'


Of the several tools I have explored during ED483, a few stand out to me as the most useful. The first of those tools are those from google: Blogger, Sites and Documents. For purposes of communication, Google sites and blogger are excellent resources which can be used to strengthen the community built between the teacher and both his students and the parents of. By uploading assignments, test dates, course expectations, etc.,  there should be no confusion about where the students are expected to be at with their education in a given course. With Google Documents, a teacher can assess a students learning during a class period or from outside of school. Furthermore, the results of that assessment will be easily scored and made available in a spreadsheet which can then be converted to a graph, which can be helpful to indicate how the class did as a whole, or on any individual test item. 


In addition to the Google Resources, I found the concept of 'flipping the classroom' to be very beneficial as a tool to 'implement curriculum plans that include effective technology-enhanced methods and strategies to maximize student learning' (as required by standard MTS 7).  The compilation of several tools, providing the ability to record a video lecture, upload it to the web, and then embed the video into a site, can be used to develop a lesson in which the students are lectured to while outside of class. Flipping the classroom maximizes student learning by minimizing the amount of class time designated for lecture, allowing that time to be more interactive/activity based.


Third, the online resources I explored for simply developing a grading rubric will certainly be a vital time saver. Prep time for teachers is often too short; saving time by taking advantage of free online resources is an efficient way to apply technology to facilitate a variety of effective evaluation strategies.


I have accomplished many goals this semester in building my toolbox toward meeting the expectations of a 21st-century teacher and for meeting technological standards. But in learning of these several tools, I have concluded that my knowledge is minimal in relation to the vast array of tech sources available in developing to be the best teacher I can be.