New Tech Standards and Requirements

The 3 Technological Standards and Requirements that stood out to me the most were:

• Creativity and Innovation
  
• Communication and Collaboration
  
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making
  

I believe that these really reached me due to the automatic ideas that flooded my brain on how to incorporate them into the classroom.

Every class, despite the grade, needs to be creative and innovative. From kindergarten to high school, from college to the "real world" we are constantly finding new discoveries and ways to accomplish tasks or express ourselves. As we approach a new age, we are confronted more and more with the ever changing ideals of technology...and the classroom should definitely represent and demonstrate such. I think that it would be easy to allow our students to do this! They could create projects using different online tools such as Prezi or Screenr, or even have the ability to discovery other ways to accomplish tasks in a different way.

Along with this, technology allows for a better way not only for us to create, but for us to collaborate and communicate with one another. As a teacher, technology allows us to have a better opportunity to keep in contact with the parents of our students through email, blogs, or even classroom websites.  Students can also use technology to work together and keep in contact with one another. This can be done simply through group forums, or through the wonderful tools Google supplies (ie. Google Reader, Google Presentation, Google Docs, etc). By using these the students can work together on projects at their own speeds at the same time, on the same documents!

Lastly, I believe that technology really allows for students to use and develop their critical thinking and decision making skills. Using technology makes us have to problem solve and figure out new ways to try things. It is amazing how much we have to use problem solving skills in order to figure out how to accomplish tasks using technology. By doing this, and allowing our students to do this, we are at the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy. It is also important because technology is evolving at such a rapid exponential rate that we need to provide our students with the knowledge on how to use it as a tool and to have the skills to grow and change with it.

On a side note: It is important to note that some teachers think that using technology is not appropriate or even feasible to use in their classroom due to only having "one computer" in the classroom. I think that this is merely a minor bump in the road! Yes, each student having their own computer or access to such would be ideal, but one computer is just fine! Even setting aside time to check out the carted laptops, or going to the computer lab could be helpful. Don't simply write-off the idea of using technology simply because you hit a block in the road. Use your own problem solving skills and figure out great ways to solve the "issue." Technology is here and is not going away. We need to do whatever we can as educators to equip our students with basic knowledge and skills in order to prepare them to be learners in this new society.

This allows us to be creative ourselves and engage our students...don't be scared, but excited!

Think of all of the "normal" ways you would typically accomplish a classroom task.

Now, think to yourself: 

What could I add or alter in order to make this assignment or activity more exciting using technology?

For myself I must admit that I am enthusiastically trying to incorporate these technologies with my 8th grade Health lesson for my Practicum. I think that I could do a variety of activities with regards to food tracking and food group advertising using the array of technological applications that we have become familiarized with. There are SO many ideas that you could do...how could you ever get bored?

The sky really is the limit in cloud computing!