21st Century Learners

As I am sitting here writing this, President Obama is talking about educating people in the USA to keep up with the rest of the world. I also just saw an article from someone who indicated that 21st century skills is a waste of time because students can't handle 19th century skills at this point. This past few weeks have shown me that to solve the problems students have with the 19th century skills such as reading, writing, and math, we need to engage students as to the importance of learning these skills. Engaging students in this age is going to need to infuse the technology of today into these core subjects. Using the information media and technology skills will help students develop a proficiency with the tools associated with technology. And while using these skills and tools, they will then work on improving their core subjects along the way.

Using technology such as the IWB will help the students use innovative thinking, problem solving skills, be creative and expressive, and adapt to change. As a teacher, it will be my job to create opportunities using technology to engage the students in the core subjects. Hands on lessons in reading, writing, and math could include games and lessons where students come to the board to interact. Group projects using technology would help communication and collaboration skills. Steering these lessons to increase learning in the core subjects will help life and career skills for the future.

This class has shown me the need for 21st century skills even more so with the loss of 19th century skills. Keeping the students engaged is a key to learning. I have been told by many teachers that kids today want to be entertained. This class has shown me that while it can be entertaining, learning is always going on when using 21st century skills. This is what has had a big impact on me as I look to teach. As far as what I liked about this class, the fact that we were allowed to be free and creative and share our learning as we went along. Then the lesson of how this caused growth in learning was made clear to us. This will be a big tool in the way I would like to teach.

Interactive Whiteboards

     The use of interactive whiteboards not only help students stay involved in the lesson, but they have been shown to increase the percentile point achievement of students when used correctly. The correct use of the interactive whiteboards should include it as part of good classroom practices. Too much glitz can detract from the main goal of the lesson, so the lesson should be clear and to the point. Keeping the information organized when using the interactive whiteboard will help avoid confusion. The use of interactive elements will help keep students engaged and increase the interest in what is being taught. As with all classroom technology, interactive whiteboards are a wonderful tool if used in a thoughtful and controlled way.