Field-Based Monthly Reflection for November 2010

This month I attended the school board meeting to hear the Instructional Technology director share with the board about 21st Century learning and skills. She spoke about the four C’s – creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. She also spoke about how the core subjects needed to be expounded upon with the help of technology to incorporate the life skills needed in our changing world. Students need to be taught responsible and accountable use of the internet. Students also need to have a good understanding of how to evaluate media as to whether the information received is accurate. Twenty first century learning also includes the use of technology to integrate global awareness which includes economic, financial, cultural and environmental literacy.

Several ways that teachers in our district are collaborating and communicating are through the use of wikis, creating podcasts, twittering, blogging and skyping. Some classrooms are also using Google docs.

Several students have shown interest in the new Texas Tech Engineering class that will be offered in the fall. The two high schools and one middle school have been recently given wireless capabilities so that students can use their iTouches, iPads, and phones for research in classrooms with limited technology resources.

The district is also experimenting with Exemplar Bundles that are a depository for lessons that teachers can share. Each teacher can have their own edublog which would include a rubric, lesson and student product.

One board member asked if there were any incentives to get teachers to put their work on the web. Another expressed appreciation of the addition of WiFi, so that more devices would be available for student use. A comment was made over whether providing internet to the poorer sections of the community could be done through a future bond election.

This month, I also had the opportunity to share a simulation website with a science teacher. The website is full of simulations that teachers can incorporate into lab work. The students can plug in the data to see the results of their experiments without the cost of the materials. This website is: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new.