EDUC 6712: Reflection

Alan November (2008) reminds us that, “[E]ducators can harness the power of the Internet to get their message out and to empower students to become more actively involved in managing their own learning,” (November, 2008, pg. 3). No longer are we the gatekeepers to the information available to young minds, choosing what our students learn and when they learn it. In today’s technology-driven world, all the information is already out there for our students, ready for the taking. It is now our job to teach our students how to effectively access and process that information.

The most striking revelation I had about the teaching of new literacy skills as a result of this course was the number and complexity of them. The old “readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic” standards are long gone. Sure, students still need to know how to read, write, and multiply, but in today’s world, students need to learn how to critically evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information they have read, communicate their findings to others, and become master problem solvers. To compete globally, students will need to learn globally – and the Internet opens the door to learning in such a collaborative fashion.

That being said, we cannot simply connect our students to the Internet and turn them loose. Anyone can post anything on the Internet, and they do. The amount of information, and misinformation, for that matter, found on the Internet can be overwhelming. The knowledge gained from this course has allowed me to see that it is important that we teach our student how to search effectively for the information they need and/or want and, once they find the information, how to evaluate that information for authority and validity.

Navigating the Internet to find and evaluate information is a key skill in itself, but not a stopping point. As Eagleton and Dobler point out, “Readers must not only understand the text, but must also be able to ‘own’ the information,” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, pg. 199). Teachers in decades past used to “tell” student what the information given to them means and how it fits into their lives. Today, however, students need to be able to synthesize information on their own, only relying on teachers for direction when their lost.

Finally, and equally important, is the ability to take this new information learned and communicate to others in an effective manner, often through the use of other technologies such as blogs, Wikis, and other multimedia projects.

One goal I have for myself as an educator in the 21st century is to further my own skills in developing technology-based, inquiry-driven lessons that help my students develop their own 21st century skills and global awareness. I will be able to accomplish this goal through future Walden University courses and professional development workshops and classes offered by my school district, as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

References:

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.