Reflections+on+Facilitator+Standard+III

"In an era when the needs of students are rapidly changing, schools are not providing digital-age learners with the types of environments that parallel the connectivity and social interaction patterns that they are accustomed to outside of school." (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p.57) Based on what I have read and in talking to my students this quote basically sums up the state of our schools and quite possibly the answer to why our students don't perform as well as they can in schools. Quite simply, many of them are bored having to sit in an environment that isn't as fast paced and dynamic as the what they are use to. One of the things I did this year was to ask my students what were some of the things that they would like to see, and incorporating more technology into classroom instruction was mentioned by majority of them.

Armed with this new information I tried to look for ways that I could incorporate certain tools they use outside class into what I did within my classroom. Things like blogs and wikis were readily accepted by my students and I found that for one it helped to eliminate the clutter of having all kind of papers on my desk and I was also able to use their blogs and wikis as an electronic portfolio of the work that they completed this year. Now being that this this was the first year that I used these tools, there was a lot of changes that I identified that I could make. However in using these tools I found that the attitude of the students changed towards the work that was given to them to complete. Going forward I will try to incorporate more things into what I do in class.

As the age demographics of the teachers in schools starts move from one generation to the next, I believe that some of the issues that were addressed in this chapter will start to disappear. If we are to continue to be competitive in the world market we must realized that the partnership between education and technology is the key to maintaining our competitiveness. "How we educate our children may prove to be more important than how much we educate them" (Solomon & Schrum, 2007,p.11 ) Ultimately in order to be successful there are five characteristics that must be taken on by all stakeholders. We must have supportive and shared leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application, shared personal practice and supportive conditions.

Solomon, G & Schrum, L; 2007; Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools; Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education

Williamson, J & Redish T; 2009; ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards; Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education

Blankstein, A; 2004; Failure is Not an Option: Six Principles that Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools: Thousand Oaks, CA