As I enter my third semester in the MAT program at Meredith, I am realizing that I have a long way to go before I feel confident in my skills as a classroom teacher, particularly when it comes to using technology in the classroom. Most of the terminology and ideas are new to me. Here, I will attempt to explain what I am learning- to both myself, and my audience! 21st century learning is a whole new world. The old ways of learning (writing a sentence 100 times on a chalkboard) are becoming obsolete, and iPads and chat room collaborations are building a significant presence in the classroom. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is an organization that champions 21st century readiness for all students. "P21" provides resources to help teachers stay up to date with technology by blending together the 3R's and 4C's (Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity and innovation). The framework P21 advocates a comprehensive view of teaching in the 21st century and learning in today's world.
While P21 leads the charge for 21st century learning, there are many ideas that campaign for the cause. TPACK is an organized way to identify the knowledge and expertise teachers need to teach with technology and to be effective in their teaching. Content knowledge, Pedagogy knowledge, and technology knowledge are the componenets that make up the TPACK framework. To fully understand TPACK, a teacher must also recognize the information that lies between the three knowledge bases.
NETS-T and NETS-S are still more terms we have looked at in class, although I'm still working on getting a firm grip on all of the acronyms! These are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge needed to teach, and learn, effectively. The website states, "Simply being able to use technology is no longer enough." How true a statement that is. In the world we live in, students must be able to use technology capably, and teachers must be able to teach technology with complete knowledge of the trends themselves. That's all for today. I'm off to class tonight- stay tuned for the next round of new-to-me technology concepts in education!
Kate,
ReplyDeleteI completely understand what you mean about not feeling prepared for using technology in the classroom. I have always considered myself fairly technologically literate, but this course has helped me realize that there is always more to learn. Technology is continually growing and offering new tools and applications that educators can use. This is obliviously a good thing, but it can also be somewhat daunting to us as new teachers.
Kate T.
Hi Kate, since I'm your official "commenter" I'll send you an email too. I just wanted to say that I think your first post is a really good overview of TPACK and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and NETS. I felt like I had a good feel for what they were all about. I focused more on NETS when I was doing research for the first post, so this was helpful. See you in class!
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