Today was my first day as part of Eagle County School’s E2T2 Grant. This grant was awarded to Eagle County to increase “integreation of Educational Technology and Information Literacy as well as the 21st Century Learning Skills identified by research to be critical for students who can navigate the future with success”(E2T2 Grant, 2010). Over the summer, I was fortunate to travel to Ireland on a Fund For Teachers Grant to research the potato famine as a push factor for emigration. During my time in Ireland, I maintained a blog chronicling my experiences and synthesis of learning. I am daily struck speechless with the impact blogging had on my processing of the new information. It was an experience that has forever changed my way of learning and ultimately, teaching. I feel that I am jumping onto the digital age bandwagon late – that I realized, far later than my students learned, that technology (and I am speaking digital literacy) can and should play an integral role in the classroom.
Today was a wake-up call for me. Students today expect more from a school education than students of yesteryear. But, it’s the teachers of yesteryear that are teaching our students for a tomorrow that doesn’t exist yet. That is what teachers are charged with under 21 Century Skills. 21st Century Skills go beyond using technology – it’s not the technology, but concepts and skills that exist in a digital world that I have, until this summer, have been remiss to pay attention to. Students today are digital learners, and to motivate and engage them, it is up to the teachers to ensure that this is what they get. Under 21st Century Skills, as teachers, we are expected to teach students to think, create, analyze, evaluate and apply. Learning no longer happens alone internally within the student – where it’s sink or swim on your own; it is a collective, group, process that requires students to interact and build understanding together.
This is what I have started to learn from my first day of being part of the E2T2 Cohort. I am excited to start this journey and learn. I am excited that already, I can create, with confidence, a Wiki page.
Today was a wake-up call for me. Students today expect more from a school education than students of yesteryear. But, it’s the teachers of yesteryear that are teaching our students for a tomorrow that doesn’t exist yet. That is what teachers are charged with under 21 Century Skills. 21st Century Skills go beyond using technology – it’s not the technology, but concepts and skills that exist in a digital world that I have, until this summer, have been remiss to pay attention to. Students today are digital learners, and to motivate and engage them, it is up to the teachers to ensure that this is what they get. Under 21st Century Skills, as teachers, we are expected to teach students to think, create, analyze, evaluate and apply. Learning no longer happens alone internally within the student – where it’s sink or swim on your own; it is a collective, group, process that requires students to interact and build understanding together.
This is what I have started to learn from my first day of being part of the E2T2 Cohort. I am excited to start this journey and learn. I am excited that already, I can create, with confidence, a Wiki page.
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