ISTE-NETS 1 Reflection

Holly Crosby

Reflection on Standard 1 - ISTE-NETS for Teachers

      First and foremost, Standard 1 of the ISTE-NETS for teachers addresses that teachers need to inspire students to learn and express themselves creatively. Through the use of technology, students should be encouraged to collaborate with their peers and teachers face-to-face and virtually. In other words, students need to have skills to get their points across to others through personal and virtual encounters. Also, this standard states that teachers need to advance student learning. Educators need to encourage students to take risks and show their creativity. Some students may be a bit shy; however, through the use of technology their talents would be able to surface. The Internet is a great tool to allow students to research various real world issues. In doing this, students would then be able to get into groups and make an awareness presentation of a particular issue to share with the class. This is a great way to show that students can indeed have a voice in these issues. This standard also mentions how it is important for the student to reflect and evaluate the collaborative efforts during class. This could possibly be done on a survey.      

      As one now, I feel excited about incorporating technology into my classroom. I believe that through the incorporation of technology in the classroom my students will be more motivated to learn and engaged. I also believe that my increasing the use of technology throughout the day, students’ reading skills will sky rocket. One of my concerns in this debate about technology being incorporated into the classroom is that there are not enough computers in my classroom. It is a very daunting task to try and get my students to rotate the computer usage. I do feel strong in my efforts to create technology pieces that could be used in the classroom. Back in January, I took a course on incorporating technology in the classroom. I found it very fun and it made me want to revamp all of my lessons over this summer. We made virtual field trips, a webquest, a web 2.0 project, etc. As I mentioned before, my biggest task is getting my students to actively use the computers in my room for an appropriate amount of time. I think maybe I could have a log set up to allow my student one day on the computer for 20-30 minutes since I have a rather large class with only four computers.