Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains and our teaching

What struck me most about the ISTE standards for teachers was how much they align with what good teaching should look like even in a non-digital classroom. Learners, leaders, facilitators, these are all things good teachers need to be focusing on when trying to teach and engage students.  The major difference being that these standards take good teaching a step further to ensure students are now getting the technological and digital education they need.  This extra step is going to be crucial for them to be successful in an ever-changing world.  The old notions of sit, listen and learn are hopefully fading into the past.  As teachers, we are preparing students to be productive members of society and in this advanced age that means we must teach them how to be global innovative thinkers.  Through thoughtful teaching we can give them the tools to be responsible and purposeful with their digital citizenship.  

I think using the theory of connectivism just opens a whole level of learning that wasn’t available before and wasn’t emphasized. Teaching students how to learn and not solely the content is going to serve them more in our changing society. Using teaching styles that help students sift through the continuous bombardment of information to get to what is important is going to enable student to take charge of what they learn.  The next step and my favorite step is teaching students to take their learning from an individual level to a group level.  The ability to connect ideas together to collaborate and learn as a group is something I hope foster in my class.  I am excited to use ever growing technological tools at my disposal to create a place for students to learn how to be good learner in this fast-paced digital world.