With Understanding Comes Power
This week we started the six-week summer course Power Tools for Educators. Although this course has become known as “the technology course,” it was actually designed to provide prospective educators with a variety of professional tools that could empower them to become effective teachers. Three years ago, in what was then an introductory course, we focused on lesson planning tools, including Universal Design for Learning, productivity tools such as spreadsheet and data bases, social bookmarking tools such as Diigo and Delicious, presentation tools such as Prezi and Powerpoint, and collaboration tools such as wikis. We also introduced students to professional tools such as the Professional Teaching Standards, Ethics for Educators, FERPA, and copyright laws.
This summer marks the launch of an updated version of the course–a version that is more focused upon a portion of the Skills for 21st Century Students—the “skills, knowledge & expertise students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st century” (from website). In particular, the course has been re-conceptualized to help prospective teachers develop the skills that will help them provide their own students with learning experiences that develop COLLABORATION, COMMUNICATION, CRITICAL THINKING, & CREATIVITY in a global context.
We could not have had a better first week of class. Professor Curt Bonk, the author of one of our textbooks, The World is Open, was a guest speaker for us after conducting 3 ‘master classes’ for faculty earlier in the day. Bonk’s optimism regarding the promise of technology to engage learners in global learning energized us to harness technological power as a means to understanding.
Professor Bonk is also to thank for suggesting we consider using the work of Julie Lindsey and Vicki Davis in the course to help us & our students become more powerful global collaborators. Their book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds (2013, Pearson) will serve as our guide for our culminating course project–a collaboratively developed, multi-media pitch to administrators for support for school-based Flat Classroom projects. Groups will ‘compete’ for “funding” before a panel of educators and business people in the community.
So stay tuned as we POWER UP, OPEN UP, and FLATTEN OUR WORLD!
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