ISTE Teacher Standard 1.
Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
Teachers advance student learning by staying up-to-date with local and global societal issues. They not only promote, but model to students, how to be creative and innovative thinkers. They use digital tools and resources to solve real world problems and do so by collaborating with classmates, teachers and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
Teachers need to allow time for themselves to play with technology tools before using them to create learning environments for their students. Technology can be frustrating and scary, so it is important to keep an open mind and stay optimistic! I grew up in the 90s, so luckily I have a pretty solid background in technology that makes navigating it a little less stressful.
I didn’t realize just how many tech tools I was missing out on until I learned about the list of top 200 tech tools for learning. My peers and I broke into groups to analyze selections of the list and share with everyone our favorite tools. We created a Google Slides presentation (Artifact #1) that discusses Wikipedia, Dropbox, Skype, LinkedIn, FutureLearn, and Kahoot. We then created a Google Form (Artifact #2) to obtain feedback from our peers on the information presented. We wanted to find out their thoughts on each of the tech tools and which tools they were most likely to use in their future classroom. This collaboration aspect is important for teachers because we can learn and bounce ideas off each other. We may often discover new tech tools to use in our classroom from our fellow educators.
In addition to staying up-to-date with new technology tools, teachers should know how to use them to inspire student learning and creativity through solving real world problems. My peers and I created a WebQuest (another new awesome tool I learned this year) for 2nd graders on how littering affects marine life (Artifact #3). Littering is a prevalent issue that is taking place in our community every day. Our WebQuest teaches students what littering is, how it affects marine life, and what the students can do on a daily basis to keep the world a healthier and cleaner place.
I didn’t realize just how many tech tools I was missing out on until I learned about the list of top 200 tech tools for learning. My peers and I broke into groups to analyze selections of the list and share with everyone our favorite tools. We created a Google Slides presentation (Artifact #1) that discusses Wikipedia, Dropbox, Skype, LinkedIn, FutureLearn, and Kahoot. We then created a Google Form (Artifact #2) to obtain feedback from our peers on the information presented. We wanted to find out their thoughts on each of the tech tools and which tools they were most likely to use in their future classroom. This collaboration aspect is important for teachers because we can learn and bounce ideas off each other. We may often discover new tech tools to use in our classroom from our fellow educators.
In addition to staying up-to-date with new technology tools, teachers should know how to use them to inspire student learning and creativity through solving real world problems. My peers and I created a WebQuest (another new awesome tool I learned this year) for 2nd graders on how littering affects marine life (Artifact #3). Littering is a prevalent issue that is taking place in our community every day. Our WebQuest teaches students what littering is, how it affects marine life, and what the students can do on a daily basis to keep the world a healthier and cleaner place.
