In our college class we are having a discussion about being a 21st century teacher. What does it mean to be a 21st century teacher mean as far as technology and how we should teach?

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This is really subjective, in my opinion.  I started teaching 13 years ago, so I grew up in the 80s, when we first had computers in the classroom.  Not many of them, and usually only 1 for every few rooms, but they were still there.  While I'm all for using technology, I don't use it for the sake of using it.  I use it if it makes my work easier, makes the lesson more valuable for the students, and (sometimes) for the "wow" factor.  Most staff at my school don't use their projectors beyond a PowerPoint or something.  I have a Wacom tablet, and I installed Whyteboard (I started running Ubuntu on my laptop; I don't use the school-provided computer) for my teaching.  (I teach Algebra 2, Pre-Calc, and AP Calc.)  I will be experimenting with running a screen-capture program, like Camstudio or Camtasia, during my lessons in the fall, as I had a lot of students express interest in having each lesson captured in a podcast format.  I use podcasts to supplement instruction, but haven't tried anything like this before.  

 

Students love walking into my room at the start of class to see what I'm going to have on the screen next.  I might have a comic book image displayed, I might have some personal pictures cycling through, I might have my presentation up and running, I might have a music video playing....it's always something different.

 

I'd say to be a 21st-century teacher means knowing how to use technology appropriately in your classes.

I agree with this. It is important to know how to use technology appropriatley in the classroom. I like the fact that students can walk into a classroom and be amazed by the technology they see on the screen.

 

The fact that we have technology available to us, we should take that advantage and use it toward benefiting our student's learning and engage them into learning new topics as well.

In My Point of view, A 21st century teacher should have one big goal and that is to engage students interest as far as possible, one way to achieve this is by teaching what digital resources are available to students and how they can be benefited by those resources.
Engaging student's interests is very key. It can be hard for students to loose sight of what they should be learning. Textbooks are important but should not dominate teaching. It is important to reach student's interests and engage them through the use of SMART boards and computers so they can actively participate in the material they are learning.
Being a 21st century teacher means so much more than just being a teacher. You need to be aware of all the aspects that go into teaching and not just the basic subjects. You need to be completely aware of all the new technology and how it can positively influence and enhance your classroom. There are so many things that can help your students be better learners that come with being a teacher in the 21st century. You also have to make sure you are doing assessments relevant to the curriculum in your classroom.

For me, being a 21st century teacher means two things:

 

First, being able to innovate and maximize the use of the new technologies in delivering lessons. A simple example would be: Delivering your lessons using powerpoint presentations is way more "colorful" than using the blackboard. There are more chances in capturing the attention and interest of your students. Not to mention you could save time and focus more on the students because your daily lessons are "pre-written". You will be spending more time facing the students than facing the blackboard.

 

Second, being a 21st century teacher means you will be dealing with 21st century students. Students from a century ago or even just a decade ago thinks differently than the students today. So, everything will be more challenging on the psychological side.

For me, it is realizing that learning doesn't JUST happen at school. Realizing that students don't have to know but rather know how to access and process/question that knowledge. 

 

It is realizing we have to OPEN. Our classrooms, our philosophies, our schools, our delivery.  Every student must have a personal learning plan. 

 

A 21st educator is not just about using technology. Technology will be a big part of it but it isn't everything.  for me, to reiterate - it is about valuing what students do outside of school. Opening.............. up .........

 

I hope to discuss with many at my RScon 3 workshop on Friday. I'll be discussing the Flipped classroom. 

 

David Deubelbeiss

http://eflclassroom.com 

I think part of being a 21st century teacher is using and modeling the use of 21st century technologies and web 2.0 tools.  We have to figure out a way to move teaching and learning from the teacher in front of the classroom model to student interaction and ownership of the content of the course.
21st century teachers focus (and measure their success) based on student learning and engagement.  Technology is an important part, but you'll never "wow" your students, so instead create opportunities for them to collaborate and "wow" you, their colleagues, and an authentic online audience.  Also, a 21st century teacher won't create assessments that insult their students (i.e. a test where the answers can be found on Google) but will challenge and engage them in their domain (i.e. answers are found online, and then synthesized into a comprehensive and well written response.
I would say that being a 21st Century teacher would most definitely include great use of the technology available, such as power points, Prezi, computer work, etc. Technology is becoming a bigger part of people's lives and this should apply to technology as well.

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