The Role of Technology in a 21st Century Education System

The rate at which technology develops is significantly faster than our ability to fully recognize and use it in our classrooms.  It is obvious that our students are usually more technologically savvy than us, their teachers.  That is why it is important for us to catch up with what is new in science and technology in order to relate and better motivate our students.  We now live in a world where students use a lot of tools and equipments that they can use to explore a variety of things and topics.

The videos that I watched were very helpful to better understand how technology could be used in the classroom.  Since I am a science teacher, the video by Edutopia (2012) on STEM was very interesting to me.  They showed how technology can be used in laboratory activities.  It also showed examples of Performance Based Learning that we could apply to the 21st Century Skills.  The Text on Maximizing the Impact by iste emphasizes the essential information on how to develop and reinforce 21st Century Learning.  It is important for our students to be prepared to face different challenges when they finish school.  This includes the use of technology to enhance their learning and skills and to learn how to solve problems by using critical thinking skills and using all the available resources (including technology to solve them).  

The video on Differentiating Instruction through Interactive Games (Edutopia 2012) showed the advantages of using technology in our classes.  It is very inspiring to know that the teacher, Mr. Pronovost, was able to get a lot of his equipments through grants. It is also good to note that there are a variety of softwares or apps that we can use for various topics or concepts that we teach.  These apps can aid our instruction and help us to effectively monitor and identify the students that are struggling since we get immediate evaluations from the softwares.  This will save us time going around and trying to identify these students.  This means that we have more time to help our students.  The teacher mentioned a couple of softwares that he uses.  They are the Planet Turtle which has questions that are of the same level for all student in the class.  This will help filter the students that understand the lessons and the ones that need more help.  The other program was the Dreambox which allows students to work on their own level and pace.  The other advantage of the use of these programs is that they already check the students’ answers which helps in the student level identification.

There are 6 California Standards for The Teaching Profession and I believe that Technology can be used to satisfy all of them in a certain degree.  The four CSTP’s that I think would most benefit from the use of Technology are Standard 1 (Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning), Standard 2 ( Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning), Standard 4 (Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for All Students) and Standard 5 (Assessing Student Learning).  Technology will definitely engage students especially the softwares that are visually appealing and fun to use, of course, while providing essential information to the students.  This ties to Standard 2 and 4 because the activities are designed to improve effective environments and provide various learning experiences to all students.  They can work independently and as a group.  Technology is so versatile since we can use a variety of equipments like laptops, tablets, iphones, laboratory machines, etc.  We also have unlimited choices of softwares that we can use to enhance student learning.  A lot of the available softwares also have assessments and even data analysis that will help us to get a good trend of our class and individual student's progression.

References:

Teaching & Learning 21 Century Learner - Power Point. Dr. Patricia Dickensen

Edutopia (2012, July 11). Differentiating instruction through interactive games (Tech2Learn Series). Retrieved December 2, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ0BGXMf83U&feature=youtu.be.

Edutopia (2012, April 5). Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) projects encourage students to excel. Retrieved December 2, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRrLPCQTZwc&feature=player_embedded.

State Educational Technology Directors Association. (n.d.) Maximizing the impact: The pivotal role of technology in a 21st century education system. Retrieved December 2, 2012 from http://www.setda.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=191&name=P21Book_complete.pdf.