Nets.T Performance Indicator 3 (con't)

My most recent blog discussed performance Indicator 3 as it relates to teachers needing to "collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student student success and innovation". This blog will discuss another aspect of this indicator, the need for teachers to "demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations ". (Teachers using technology in the classroom and being fluent in its application.)

Technology has provided teachers with new and creative ways to present classroom material. Collaboration between students and teachers is and has always been essential in the learning environment. This interactive concept can be enhanced using collaborative web-sites such as http://www.webspiration.com/ and http://www.wiki.com/ . These sights provide a creative means for student/teacher and student/student interaction. These creative mediums keep the students engaged with the task at hand (boredom abatement).

I am teaching Environmental Science this trimester and am trying to implement concept mapping as a creative learning tool. I feel concept mapping can be useful for both learning and retention. Because the environmental field involves all the sciences I feel it is important for the student to understand how all these sciences are linked together in various aspects of different environmental issues. Utilizing technology to help develop this theme will certainly aid in my endeavor. But I must become fluent in "webspiration" (collaborative concept mapping) before I introduce it to my students.

Keeping the students interested (and awake) has always been a challenge regardless of the subject. Students entering a classroom knowing that another lecture awaits them are bored before they even sit down. However, if they know they are going to interact with the teacher or their fellow students (via concept mapping) they may develop an attitude, more conducive to learning. Learning can be entertaining. It is similar to exercising. If you enjoy a particular exercise activity you are more apt to exercise as opposed to running for the sake of running just because you heard it was "good" for you. Similarly, if teachers make education fun through the means technology provides, then students will become more engaged with learning in the classroom.