The instructional strategies we use with your students are very important. Like our students, our instructional strategies can be quite diverse. Any teacher knows that having a wide assortment of instructional strategies in your teacher toolbox is very handy indeed. However, many of our strategies can be ‘dated’ and need to be UP-dated in order to meet the needs of our 21st Century Learners. There is no denying that technology is all around us and it isn’t going anyway. On the contrary, its presence is ever increasing. The work ahead of educators now is how to use technology to bring new life to the instructional strategies we have used over the years to reach our students. As with anything, you cannot keep doing something over and over and not change with the times or that strategy becomes less effective. We always need to be looking for ways to incorporate technology into the instructional strategies we use to engage our students so that they are able to construct meaning from what they have been taught.
While I am quite willing to use technology in my classroom to enhance my instruction and instructional strategies, as well as the learning of my students, my question is this: When will my school really have the technology it needs to truly prepare students for the 21st Century? Teaching with technology is one thing, placing it in the hands of the students for them to construct meaning out of what they are being taught is quite another.
(Reflective Blog Post #1 – GCU TEC 538)
21st Century Educator 