Creating Empowered Learners in English Class

One thing that I found interesting in our discussion around Connectivism and ISTE was the ISTE “Empowered Learner” Standard. What this standard says is that students will “leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences” (https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students). I love the idea behind this standard because it challenges students to become active participants in their learning experiences like they have never had to be before. I am a firm believer that education can and should empower students and can also change the direction of their futures. One of my goals as a teacher is to empower my students and instill in them a sense of responsibility to use their education to do new things and better the world around them. I’ve always known this would be a focus for me, but I’ve never thought about how that would be related to technology, and I realize now that I will have to rethink what this empowering will look like in my class. 

How am I going to teach my students how to leverage technology while also teaching them English? The Empower Learners standard makes several statements about utilizing technology to create communities of learners, whether that be building networks and connections or seeking feedback from various sources, and I think that is one way I could incorporate the use of technology within my classroom. My students will be doing lots of writing (obviously) and with writing often comes reading, peer-reviewing, and feedback. I would love to teach my students how to seek feedback from sources beyond just their immediate classmates – so maybe this would look like getting peer-reviews from students in other periods, other English classes, or other high schools through the use of Google Docs. Or it could also be a student writing an explanatory essay on a subject of their choice, and then reaching out to an expert of that subject (historian, scientist, author, etc.) in a different city, state, or country, and asking them for feedback and advice. While this isn’t major, groundbreaking technology use, it would be teaching students how to use technology to access a greater community beyond just their class and it would give them a glimpse of how much information is available through technology. It would empower them to use technology in a new way to enhance their learning experience and academic growth.