Standard+2

**Standard 2 - Teachers Know How Children Grow ** The teacher understands how children with broad ranges of ability learn and provides instruction that supports their intellectual, social, and personal development.

**Evidence 1** Wikispace designed to teach writing teachers about technology integration. Milwaukee Writing Project Wikispace

**Rationale** The Milwaukee Writing Project Wikispace was designed to introduce writing teachers to the significance of technology in the classroom. The landing page contains two videos that illustrate 21st century learners. The first, //Pay Attention//, examines the statistics surrounding technology use. It looks closely at the amount of time children spend in front of televisions and computers. At the same time, it focuses on the digital world through statistics on the use of texts, Google searches, cell phones, and emails. //Pay Attention// provides a contextual lens through which an educator should view his or her students. The other video on the page, //A Vision of K-12 Students Today//, specifically addresses the modern learner. It argues that the educational system is antiquated and unable to meet the demands and needs of today’s students. While students need to have the ability to create, collaborate, and remix, schools are still employing Industrial Age curriculums. Students are ‘checking-out’ of the learning process and are ill-prepared for the 21st century marketplace. Additionally, the homepage includes Marc Prensky’s thought-provoking article, //Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants//. Prensky forces educators to reflect upon and reevaluate their instructional methods based on their target audience. He posits that teachers are immigrants in a digital world where the natives are children who speak the language fluently. One of his main assertions is that if instructors refuse to acknowledge and implement technology appropriately in the classroom, students will not receive a relevant education.

The wiki also provides a page of links to be used to enhance the language arts curriculum. These were carefully culled from the Internet and tested by me. Links are arranged according to where they would make most sense in the writing process. It should be noted that they merely provide a starting point for educators to begin experimenting with technology enhancement in their own classrooms.

The Milwaukee Writing Project Wikispace was used at the 2010 Summer Institute. I presented it over the course of four days to teachers who were receiving language arts professional development. The site was specifically developed to be used by teachers and all of the material within is appropriate for a better understanding of K-12 students. My personal classroom experience is that understanding and applying ideas from the wikispace greatly increases behavior management. By tapping into the way 21st century digital learners acquire and use new material, behavior problems are less likely to develop as students are more engaged. Technology enhanced curriculum also provides opportunities for the teacher to differentiate material as well as make it more relevant to its target audience. The wikispace is important to my development as a teacher because it underscores my knowledge of how children develop and learn. Furthermore, the information contained on the site represents that latest research on learning styles and age-appropriate methods of engagement.

Knowing the latest research on how 21st century children learn is crucial to the development of successful and relevant curriculum. This type of knowledge allows for instruction that responds appropriately to their social, intellectual, and personal development. The information contained on the wikispace represents much of what I understand about a child’s need to remix, collaborate, and create new material.
 * 2.K.1 The teacher understands how learning occurs -- how students construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits of mind – and how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning for a wide range of student abilities. **

By bringing what students know to the classroom, I am better able to make strong connections to the learning experience. Understanding that children are Digital Natives helps me to implement technology in appropriate places throughout the learning process. At the same time, interactive technology sites, like those I have gathered on the links page of the wikispace, provide ample opportunity for students to work with classroom material in a way that is meaningful and connected to their own lives.
 * 2.S.2 The teacher stimulates student reflection on prior knowledge and links new ideas to already familiar ideas, making connections to students’ experiences, providing opportunities for active engagement, manipulation, and testing of ideas and material, and encouraging students to assume responsibility for shaping their learning tasks. **

Although it would be far more comfortable for me to stay within my Digital Immigrant confines, by drawing on the strengths of my students, I am able to create learning experiences that match their dispositions. By using the research of others in the field, I am able to better recognize the strengths of my Digital Natives as well as understand their shortcomings and develop appropriate learning situations.
 * 2.D.2 The teacher is disposed to use students’ strengths as a basis for growth, and their errors as an opportunity for learning. **

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