Melissa Buskey

EDUC 6918
Summer 2014
Reflection Essay
In EDUC 6918, Technology for Literacy, we discussed how we can best incorporate
technology into the daily life of the classroom to support the development of literacy among
students. My thinking about technology in the classroom has changed a lot during this course.
Before this course, I was unaware of any standards for the use of technology in the classroom.
The ISTE standards provide a baseline of standards of the use of technology on a national scale. I
found it interesting that ISTE has standards for students, teachers, and administrators. This shows
the importance of not only preparing students for the 21
st
century but also having teachers and
administrators demonstrate 21
st
century citizenship. The ISTE standards are recommended but
not required. I believe this is a good thing for now as schools are still in transition to
accommodating the Common Core Standards as well as the vast diversity in access to technology
amongst school districts exist.
Before this course, I viewed technology in the classroom as being valuable however not
used very effectively in many places. I have witnessed technology being more of a distraction
than a support in many lessons. Throughout this course, we talked about how technology should
be incorporated into lessons not designing lessons around the use of technology. In other words,
the technology must support the purpose of the lesson not creating purposes to justify the use of
technology. I found the Web 2.0 tool to be very helpful in both illustrating this point and helping
locate technology to use. This tool asks teachers to identify exactly what they want their students
to do and then names a technology which would allow them to do that. Teams of teachers could
also add to a chart like this as a collaborative effort. There are many different technologies out
there, it is impossible for one person to be familiar with the use of all of them. Teachers who
collaborate can share different technologies with each other, expanding the possibilities of uses
in the classroom.
Students are capable of becoming a literate person without technology. However, this
course has taught me two ideas about technology. First technology can support many students
and provide additional practice of literacy skills which enhances learning. Second, being able to
read and write is not enough in the 21
st
century. Literacy in todays world includes effective use
of technology to establish fluency in 21
st
century skills. As teachers, it is our job to prepare
students for success when they leave school. This requires a basis of technology literacy. This
course has helped prepared me to create a classroom environment to foster 21
st
century literacy.