Creativity
and Innovation
Effective
teachers will demonstrate and bring into play the National Technology Standards
for Students (NETS•S) as they engage themselves,
students, colleagues, and communities in learning experiences that will improve
their level of comprehension pertaining to the use of technology. Teachers
should consider developing authentic learning experiences and assessments for their
students. Whether educational programs are developed for the students to
maximize their learning or simply to practice, they should be tailored in such
a way that each student’s individual interests, curiosities, and creativity are
present and they are able to engage in monitoring their own progress, setting
their own goals, and ultimately becoming independent learners. For example,
students may participate in creating an introduction video to monitor their own
development over time. We created introduction videos in my class using a video
camera, in which we delivered a 30 second autobiography to the class. The
videos could also be used to tape students reading progress or for them to practice
delivering speeches with.
Communication
and Collaboration
Secondly,
in view of the fact that technology is advancing continuously each day,
teachers, students, administrators, and communities all find themselves further
developing and improving their technological understanding and communication methods
as well. Educators must maintain a current understanding of technological
advancements, so that they may be able to inform others of innovations and
participate in communicating with peers, parents, and students alike. For
example, I enjoyed creating a Voki in class that represented my creativity, personality,
and level of skill with a technologically designed product. I enjoyed both
developing the unique avatar and telling my loved ones and friend about it. It
is most important that educators are able to comprehend, identify with, and
assist one another in this endless learning. This tool could be used to make
presentations by a student or a teacher. Teachers
must be capable of using these and various other types of technologies to
discover their students’ intellectual capacity and scaffold their students’
future learning.
Research
and Information Fluency
It is obvious that teachers have to create
informative experiences for their students that will enhance their creativity,
learning, and originality. This allows students to choose to research something
that they find to be relevant or interesting and allows the teachers to assess
their students in the most effective manner. Educators should create a need for
students to explore real-world issues and document their thinking using
computers. Recently, in my class we generated concept maps that discussed
topics in science. Concept maps can be used in all subjects though. In English,
students can use concept maps to identify elements of a particular story. They
can then create a digital presentation explaining their reasoning for choosing
a particular story. Students may create concept maps using pictures, Venn
diagrams, word sorts, concept maps, and various computer programs that will
increase their artistic thinking.
Critical
Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Instructors ought to exhibit knowledge
and attain skills of a pioneering professional in this ever evolving digital
society. For instance, teachers should communicate with students, peers,
parents, and the community using digital resources such as a blog or classroom
webpage. We each created our own “teacher webpage” in my class and it was a
great way to practice developing an interactive resume so to speak. I wasn’t able
to just go wild in being creative. There were guidelines and this wasn’t just
for me, it was for the students and the teachers to use so there was an element
of crtical thinking and decision making taking place on my part. Teachers may
also choose to correspond with others using email, video chat, or instant messaging
to correspond. Most significantly, teachers should demonstrate the use of
digital resources that will enhance research and learning in the classroom. My
teacher did an excellent job of getting my to discover how to develop my own webpage,
which is a challenge that I would have otherwise faced alone.
Digital
Citizenship
Finally, when requiring students to
engage in using digital tools, teachers should inform students how to create their
own movies that are clean-cut and innovative. I greatly enjoyed making a video
in my class. I most appreciated that the professor did not require us to
present any topic in particular, but instead, gave us the ability to choose for
ourselves what story we wanted to tell. But students must understand the rules
of copyrighting material and documenting sources when putting videos together
in order to maintain digital citizenship. In order to persist in learning the laws
that are continually changing in reference to digital goods, the teachers
themselves must engage in attending workshops, educational training, and global
learning communities so that they can grow professionally and lead others to do
the same. Instructors must constantly evaluate their abilities and improve them
as necessary in order to be in alliance with the National Technology Standards for
Students (NETS•S).
