Blogfolio

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).