Technology Standards
I have recently examined the National Education Standards for Teachers from the International Society for Technology in Education and have realized that although I would describe myself as technologically sophisticated and an educator who attempts to incorporate technology into my lessons for the benefit of my students, I still do not fully meet with some of the indicators outlined within the various standards. With that in mind I have decided to dedicate my time to working on two particular standards, “Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership and, develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools” (ISTE, 2008) by developing a GAME plan (Cennamo, K, Ross, J, & Ertmer, P, 2009) to monitor my progress and ensure that I am achieving mastery of each indicator.
GOALS
1. I desire to become a more outspoken and confident leader in technology integration within the curriculum and the classroom within my school and cluster group.
2. I desire to more effectively use digital-age communication technology to create learning experiences for my students that incorporate diverse cultural groups and experiences.
ACTIONS
In order to become a more effective technology leader with my school, I need to begin by speaking out more, particularly administrative meetings, about he importance of effectively training teachers in Web 2.0 systems such as, social networking, wikis, blogging, classroom websites, digital story-telling, etc, and providing them with technologies, such as interactive whiteboards, laptops in the classroom, digital interactive devices (voting/texting). To promote these technologies, I will attend meetings and provide scholarly data that displays the benefits and cost-analysis of such technologies. I will also research other school districts that have incorporated similar innovations and even invite other teachers or educational leaders to come speak about the benefits of such technology and professional development within my own school. Through attending meetings and researching the real life implications of 21st century technology within the classroom I can begin to influence decisions being made about financial allocations and teacher training using said technologies.
Within my own classroom, in order to more effectively develop educational environments that incorporate cross-cultural communication between my students and other students, I need to build relationships, either in person or digitally, and make connections with other educators from various, diverse locales ranging from neighboring school districts to other schools from around the world. By developing such relationships and establishing long-term communication with my cohorts within other schools as well as the administrations within said schools, I will be able to create socio-educational connections between my own students and other students. These connections will allow for digital collaboration between students and educators.
MONITOR
To ensure that I continually move toward my two goals, I will monitor my progress by keeping a detailed log of events and times, as well as outcomes. This detailed log will provide a source of insight as to how much I am accomplishing and how fast I am moving towards my goal. This log will also indicated meeting times of various staff and administration so as to ensure that I attend each meeting possible and describe the benefits of technological integration in the classroom. Also, by detailing meetings, and social networking, either digital or face-to-face, that occurs between myself and others at local, regional, national, and international schools, I will be better able to develop engaging, student-centered, cross-cultural, lessons and activities for my students.
EVALUATE
After some time dedicated to reaching towards my goals and monitoring my progress, I hope to be able to see that I have had positive impact on my school community by influencing the administration to lobby for more funds to be allocated toward technological investment and infrastructure. If this has not been the case, I will reevaluate my communication strategy as well any need for additional support for my goal from other professionals within the building. I will also look to see that I have made, at a minimum, one valuable connection with another teacher/classroom at a school with a predominantly different culture population than my own. If I have been unable to complete these tasks within the time frame set out for reaching these goals, I will need to reevaluate how I am communicating with my colleagues and the community as well as devise more actions that will better allow for each goal to be met.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
ISTE. (2008). National Education Technology Standards. Retrieved January 13, 2010, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
A Teacher Affects Eternity 
January 17, 2010 at 11:50 am
I think that your goals are very motivational. In my school district technology use is not necessarily promoted. It would be great to have someone to attend the administrators meetings to show and explain to them the importance of teaching students how to use these web 2.0 tools. Within my classroom, I do what I can to promote technology use, but many other tools, such as blogging and social networking sites are often prohibited by the district rules and guidelines. It is very difficult to get permission to use these tools because everyone wants to make sure that no rules will be broken and interpreting the district rules and guidelines is often difficult. Your goals are very good and, when you meet them, will hopefully help encourage teachers and administrators in your district of the importance of teaching students about these tools!
January 17, 2010 at 11:54 am
Very nice post. I agree with you. I also saw myself as a “technologically sophisticated” educator that, after careful review of the standards, found that I still have a long way to go.
I think the idea of separating your goals into two categories shows maturity. You realize that you are fighting two separate battles. I believe the easy battle is in your own classroom. The more difficult battle is with your administration and other teachers. I also believe the fact that you know you can not do this alone is a good point. Building an online PLN (personal leaning network) is ore valuable then you think. I started with twitter and searched out “ed tech” and found hundreds of teachers using twitter in the evening or the weekends. If they have sites or plans they develop they will post them on twitter for all to see. ( My twitter name is pharesr)
You could even keep yout log through twitter.
Sounds like a good GAME plan to me!
Robin
January 17, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Becoming a leader in your school is a very positive way to increase the use of technology in the classroom. My school has a lot of teachers who would use web 2.0 technologies if they only knew how to use it. Every school needs somebody who has that knowledge to give to the rest of the staff. It wouldnt be very difficult to take a few minutes during a meeting to demonstrate a way to integrate a specific technology into the classroom. Maybe once a month you could teach the staff something new, kind of give them a crash course, and then if they are interested they could meet with you at a later time or meeting to go further into it.
Erin Beauvais