educators + technology = ?

I am going to continue along the thread of thought I started last week and choose technologies that enhance a teacher’s ability to create relevant and meaningful lessons.  

#1 comes from Jane Dewitt’s post Social Networking in the Classroom  (January 26, 2013).

Technology Integration in Education

http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/

Of special interest to me are the article written by educators for educators.  Within these there is an excellent article talking about how to take your students from simply copying sources from google searchers to students who know and understand the value of crediting sources.  A great way to introduce students to the importance of ethical digital citizenship.

#2 comes from Shelby Lyn Richardson’s week 7 post (February 25, 2013).

Brainpop.com

http://www.brainpop.com/technology/computersandinternet/digitaletiquette/

A great way to share the importance of digital etiquette from a site that is designed to appeal to many demographics. Meanwhile their section on lesson plans and teaching tools is a wonderful place to wander around for inspiration.  Or, search for that specific topic you had in mind but didn’t know how to incorporate the technology.

#3 comes from Erica Roark’s post Open education technologies and resources (February15, 2013)

MERLOT

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

This is a site that has been set up for teachers and students since 1997 and contains a wealth of resources for teachers to use in their planning and preparation. These allow teachers to simply use new technologies as an inexpensive means to accessing subject resources through to offering online, peer assessed materials for working with technology.

There are many big shifts on their way in education.  With emerging technologies we can see a process of continuous creating and sharing content, individualized and collaborative learning, active participation by all (students, teachers, administration).  These technologies demand educators reexamine content and curriculum, and open ways for us to shift our thinking as to how best to meet our students needs (Richardson, 2010).   There are many ways to look at pedagogy and new technologies and how they interact with each other.  A useful guide is to remember we need a repertoire of teaching practices that allow us to combine the best of face-to-face teaching with the best of asynchronous learning (Dede, 2011).

How to do this?.

Teachers should reach to the new technologies for support, inspiration, and their own education.  Good teachers collaborate (Brookfield, 2006) and these sites are great examples of this process in action, in real time.  Finding ways to proactively use the same technologies our students are using to learn to supplement our professional development is something we can all attempt ... and perhaps at the same time have as much fun as our students are having.


References
Brookfield. S, D.  (2006.  The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom (2nd. ed.).  Jossey-Bass, CA: San Francisco.  

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Adult learning in the information age.  Dr. Chris Dede. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.