Module+4+Reflection

//**Reflection Prompt:**// Reflect on your thinking surrounding your developing a philosophy of Instructional Technology use for learning and your understanding of 21st Century Teaching and Learning.

=Description:= During the last week, I read about 21st century skills, technological iniquities, and the discrepancies between students' media use in school and outside of school.

=Impact:= What impacted me most during this module was on pg 58 of the text where it states "Although students may be skilled in using technology to pursue their own ... purposes outside of school the are still unprepared to use technology to pursue postsecondary studies, daily work in various professional and technical fields..." We really do need to teach students to use technology and social media professionally. One of my colleagues set up a wiki for her honors stats class earlier this year in the urban district that we work in. She allowed her class some time to create their own pages and become familiar with the wiki site. Many of the students' entries contained very un-scholarly content and a few gang-like references. The students created their pages to look just like their myspace pages! We need to adopt and use media not only to instruct, but to provide examples of appropriate online communication and use of technology. The most important part of 21st century skills seems to be the ability to adapt and communicate using technology. The technology will always change, but the people who use it in scholarly or professional applications expect students and future employees to be able to conduct themselves in an effective and professional manner.

=Intent:= I intend to continue to strive to integrate technology into my curriculum to help students access the content and learn to communicate and problem-solve. Sometimes I don't get to see the full effect of students' personal digital lives like my colleague. I think that this is partly due to the small group environment that I have and the fact that many of my students are a little behind with media use compared to their peers. I want to especially stress digital citizenship to my students and how to communicate with others in a positive way in the digital community.