| Instructions: Select a unit that you currently teach that you believe could be enhanced by focused technology integration. Create a chart, rewriting the unit goals and objectives to show increased technology usage as well as higher-order thinking skills. Be sure to include the original unit goals and objectives as well as the revised goals and objectives. -Write a short (500-750 words) reflection paper on the revisions you made. How do the new goals and objectives reflect greater technology integration and higher-order thinking skills? How do these revisions better prepare your students to gain 21st-century learner skills? -APA format is not required for the chart. -This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment. |
solution.
Reflection on Technology-based Teaching
In the 21st century, Leask and Pachler (2013) argues that the integration of technology in both teaching and learning has become an integral part of lesson planning. Teachers do not only aim at making the learning experience more exciting and worthwhile for students but also aspire to achieve the requisite technological skills, as a way of preparing their learners for life in the modern times. One of the core learning objectives in the contemporary learning environment is to impart high-order thinking skills.
However, there is a debate on the manner in which one can teach and assess such high-order thinking skills in students. As a teacher of English for high school students taking special education, I have most often used pencil and paper, and occasionally the new interactive projector. As a way of encouraging high-order thinking among the students, I will integrate the use of computers for students to write and submit assignments.
In teaching and learning, it has been a common and efficient practice for learners to practice the skills they learn in a more practical approach. One of the ways to encourage the integrate the use of technology in the learning of English by students taking special education is to create an environment and culture in which learners make it a standard practice. It is this system of regular practice with the use of computers that they would gain essential competency skills required for productive careers in the 21st century (Leask & Pachler, 2013).
Among the learning objectives set to encourage technology use and development of high-order thinking is to give students online assignments, through which they have to accomplish through group participation. In this case, learners would be expected to form groups of between 3-5 members, into which they would have to participate in delivering the assignment results. More particularly, students shall be required to participate in online forum discussions, during which each will make a post, and others respond.
The assignments posted for forum discussions shall be set on deadlines during which each learner, in their respective groups, would have had a chance to register an independent participation by making a post on an opinion and research about the assigned topic, as well as respond to at least 2 other posts made by the group members.
As a teacher, it will be a requirement to select items that trigger critical and creative thinking among the learners. When they carry out independent research, I will encourage them to access e-books from online platforms, alongside the school library, especially for the students who lack visual challenges. When they strive to present their opinions for assessments by their fellow group members, they would be sharpening the relevant high-order thinking skills of analysis, evaluation as well as synthesis (Nomass, 2013). Each student would have to take the time to read, understand and analyze the ideas posted by other group members before they can make a response to the submission.
Learning in the 21st Century ought to
recognize and utilize the enormous potential of technology to motivate and
engage learners in a variety of creative and critical thinking tasks and
projects. However, the process of integrating the use of technology in
achieving the objectives of learning in the 21st century depend on the role of
the teacher. Teachers have a pivotal role in developing learning objectives
that would impart high-order thinking skills through technology-based
instruction.
References
Leask, M., & Pachler, N. (2013). https://books.google.co.ke/books/about/Learning_to_Teach_Using_ICT_in_the_Secon.html?id=nvStXQZKgHQC&redir_esc=y Routledge.
Nomass, B. B. (2013). The impact of using technology in teaching English as a second language. English Language and Literature Studies, 3(1), 111.