New Tech Standards & Requirements

Technology standards within the classroom are important to know.  They are here to help us learn how to work quicker, simplify our lives, collaborate no matter the distance between people, create new ways to learn and make sense of things as well as to become critical thinkers (think outside the box).  Before taking this class, I had no idea how much I was missing out with my lack of familiarity with technology.  In a few short weeks I have seen and learned how technology will help make teaching more engaging, more enjoyable, and help to get the students more involved.

 

The first student education technology standard I found significant was the creativity and innovation.  I think this is a huge goal even if you do not have technology in your classroom.  The technology is able to take this piece to a whole new level.  Students are able to take what they already know and with the use of technology are able to gain deeper information, new insights, and are able to create new pieces of work all together.  Students will be able to express themselves and ideas through various types of presenting information, show what they created through their data, and are able to attach/connect various websites to help clarify ideas or materials if need be.  Technology is an endless way for student to create and innovate.  It is always updating and changing so there is no stopping what my future students will be able to come up with the use of it in the classroom. 

Next is the communication and collaboration standard.  I know myself and most students love to talk and share ideas.  Technology allows everyone to take this to a whole new level.  Now if I am doing a lesson about Africa, my students can actually talk and collaborate with people who live in Africa through the use of technology.  We could talk to anyone in the world, communicate with anyone and instantly find out what is happening at any given point of time.  It is quite fascinating.  I think a fun class project would be to work with another school on a group project that is in another country and collaborate and communicate through the use of the internet.  It would be amazing to see both points of view and what the students could come up with.  The students would get a firsthand look of global issues and quickly see how technology can help us be connected with the entire globe. 

The last standard I chose to talk about is research and information fluency.  Now you can do research the old fashion way but how boring and you are quite limited.  Technology opens up so many doors.  The information you can get on a research report is endless.  You can go as deep on the subject as you want.   In seconds you are able to gather a plethora of information, decide if it is valid and useful.  You can smoothly organize all your information to help you to accurately evaluate, analyze, and summarize all your findings.  I think this is a tremendous help with students.  Research can seem like a headache but with a click of a few buttons on your computer or phone, you can have all your information in one place or in certain folders.  It is up to you how to store your information in the easiest way for you to understand and access.  Students will use this standard when learning about any subject.  It is endless.  You could be learning about other countries or even how the city you lived was formed.  It is a great interactive outlet for students to gather information without the annoyance of not knowing how to store it.    

All of this is amazing but without knowing about possible hurdles and how to overcome may give this little value.  First challenge would be your school does not have any computers or Wi-Fi for that matter.  I think you could talk to the school about putting Wi-Fi into the budget and say you could bring in your own computer.  I think in order for this to work you would need to prove and show how much student growth you can gain with technology.  I would bring in a list of different tools and projects I could do with the students and how easy it would be as well as covering all the same standards but in a more engaging manner.  Schools are going to want to see your clear ideas and data on technology helping students.  I would come fully prepared with all of this information including statistics and graphs.