Technology in the Classroom!
What does the classroom built for the 21st Century look like? Well, for starters, teachers are aware of technology and effectively use it in the classroom. We, as teachers, will stay up to date in the technology world and make students use technology as a part of our lessons. The importance of treating technology as a learning method is that this method will keep the students engaged and excited to learn in our classrooms. The students will be able to understand and use technology in their future careers. This blog will outline many of the organizations that are pushing the classrooms of today into the technology of tomorrow.
The National Education Association (NEA) is committed to providing a top level education for every student. This association is exploring the need for the usage of technology in the classroom. They believe that "Researchers are finding a clear link between technology, achievement, and motivation"(Source 1). This is an important finding because it shows the necessity of teaching with technology. The NEA is a part of the drive for teachers using this type of instruction to reach higher-order thinking skills. This new form of pedagogy that should be implemented in schools all over the world.
The American Federation of Teachers (ATF) is a union of professionals in the teaching field. AFT is encouraging the use of technology by teachers, in the classroom, for the benefit of the students future in the 21st century. This harnessing of technology is used to enhance the experience in the classroom. Our future students need to understand the importance of being "tech-savvy" and know the dangers of the internet. To do this, AFT believes that teachers need to enhance our instruction methods with these 5 steps: "...1.infrastructure and hardware 2. software 3. professional development 4. maintenance 5. long-term support"(Source 2). I believe that these five parts of instruction will assist teachers in creating a usable technical environment for learning in their classroom. This use of technology will assist teachers in developing our skill sets and benefit our students in their future.
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is the leader in the field of creating high caliber education programs for teachers. The AACTE gives out a Best Practice Award for the innovative Use of Technology in higher education. This award is given to those teachers who have embraced technology and are using it in an innovative way within their classrooms. (Source 3). In 2008, the University of North Texas earned this award (Source 3). This is an important award because it encourages the use of upcoming technology.
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nationwide, nonpartisan, and nonprofit membership organization that includes many top leaders in education from the nation. The CCSSO held an Assessment Advisory Forum Series about the key technology considerations for the next generation of student assessments. This forum was created to consider how to use technology, in the most effective ways, to support the Common Core Standards (Source 4). CCSSO outlined the ways that technology could be used to maintain a deeper level of thinking. It is important for all teachers to find innovative ways to accomplish the level of deep thought using technology within the classroom.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills strives for the modern classroom to include: the Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes; Learning and Innovation Skills; Information, Media and Technology Skills; and Life Career Skills (Source 5). This partnership wrote an article called "Engaging Every Student Every Day: Why and How can technology help?" (Source 6). This article explains how amazing technology, for example Skype, Google Handouts, and many other applications, benefits students both in and outside of the classroom. They want students to strive for collaboration and enrich their interest in the subjects.
Now that I have gone through a few organizations and their feeling on technology I bet you are thinking, What is the point of the technology use? Well, the truth is that the goal of the Common Core State Standards is to bring the real world into the classroom. I believe that the easiest and most effective way to achieve this goal is to bring technology in the classroom. The Common Core's mission is to have our future students to be successful in competing in the global economy (Source 7). To ensure this success they have initiated the Smarter Balanced Field Test to be conducted in California in the Spring of 2014 (Source 8). This test will be the decision of the future of Common Core and the public schools testing requirements. The test is a computer based exam that encourages the students to explain how they get their answers. The change is an exciting collaboration of hard work and dedication to the field of education and the future of our economy.
1. http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/fall2001/ficklen.cfm
2. http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/PB19_Technology08.pdf
3. http://aacte.org/News-Room/AACTE-in-the-News/unt-receives-innovative-technology-award.html
4. http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2011/news/AAFMeetingMaterials.pdf
5. http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
6. http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1285-engaging-every-student-every-day-why-and-how-can-technology-help
7. http://www.corestandards.org/
8. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sa/smarterfieldtest.asp
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