Using Technology for Teaching and Learningin the 21st Century Classroom

http://www.techlearning.com/assessment-&-testing/0034/21st-century-skills-will-our-students-be-prepared/45157

This website gives a vision on how schools can best prepare our students in the 21st century and it mainly focuses on six things.
Core Subjects was stating that schools main focus is on the No Child Left Behind but also be focusing on basic competency so that students can learn at higher levels.
Learning Skills which is stating that students need to learn more than just core subjects they need to know how to think critically, analyzing and comprehension is a must just as well as solving problems and making decisions.
21Century Tools meaning the importance of incorporating information and communication technologies and education into the classroom from elementary levels on up.
21 Century Context which only means that students lives are connected to the real world beyond the classroom.
21 Century Content states that we should prepare students to live and work in the 21st century.
New Assessments that Measure 21 Century Skills meaning move beyond standardized testing measure the students skills and use technology based assessments and demand feedback.

Technology in Today's Role include computers, telecommunications, audio and video based media. There is clearly a need of assessment tools that measure the students skills.
Technology will help find ways to more effectively utilize assessment to help students learning. Some 21st Century learning skills and literacy are thinking and problem solving skills, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and intellectual curiosity. 

REFLECTION 5

http://passionforlearningandteaching.blogspot.ca/

This website is about how parents can start up a conversation with their children on what they learned at school today. This website states that open ended questions are powerful.

REFLECTING 4

http://teacherofthe21stcentury.blogspot.com/ 

This website gave insight on how using web 2.0 can increase our Personal Learning Network(PLN). It gave insight on how sites such as blogs, wiki can be beneficial to our learning process. Technology changes so fast that we must prepare and plan in order to keep ahead.

REFLECTING 3

http://www.21things4teachers.net/index.html

This website includes 21 things about technology that all teachers should know about while teaching in the 21st century. It all begins with the basics introducing to what should be taught.
It gives insight on communication, blended learning as well as productivity and content area. It is definitely a website that I will refer to just to make sure I am on track.

REFLECTING 2

http://www.edutopia.org/reinvent-assessment-21st-century

Today's students' are unlike any other student in history; they have access to more information than any generation in history, yet they are underperforming.We teach, we test. we re-teach. we differentiate, and we struggle. We do everything within our power to promote student learning, but in the end, it comes down to the mighty test.

REFLECTING 1

http://edupln.ning.com/video/teaching-in-the-21st-century

This site only showed videos and was titled the personal learning network for educators.
There were two featured videos that caught my attention: Why teachers should use twitter and Don't Give Homework.

REFLECTING

http://teaching21c.blogspot.com/

This blog was informative it gave me access to websites such as Wordle which helps students analyze their writings. It gave me information on a website that would be beneficial to help tell and or illustrate a story called Scrapblog; it is a free web based service for creating and sharing digital scrapbooks.
It showed me a website which is also free called Soundsnap which is helpful with multimedia projects.

"Distance Technologies 4.1 Blog Pro's and Con's

As I reviewed these websites they were very informative to me. There was some things that I did agree with though. Some pro's about these sites are: enables students to think out side the box and get them college and career ready. It enables student-centered learning and hands on experience is great for learning interaction. It a plus to see that schools are doing away with standardized test because some students just don't perform well with test but are capable and fully understands the knowledge. Students are surrounded with technology and schools need to jump on board to use it and to keep the students interested in learning. Students need to be engaged and motivated when it comes to learning and they need a variety of materials and resources.
Two websites site that really caught my attention was the  www.cindymichaelsjournal.blogspot.com
 the catch phrase was Tell me I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I Learn; this is so true. In this blog it states that when teaching it engages the teacher and the student in learning and self reflection. The other one was the BYOD site. BYOD stands for bring your own device it  is  very popular in todays classrooms because it is designed to give students and families freedom to make technology choices. The importance of technology is intended to allow teachers and students to make use of the learning opportunities that are made possible by the use of wireless devices.
The things that I didn't agree with (con's) are with the BYOD site what about the students that don't have devices they are excluded and left out. Not all parents can afford devices. What about the low class communities that can't afford devices or computers what are ways that their children can have access to these things, with technology being in a great demand what about these families they need exposure. I agree that students shouldn't solely depend on pencil and paper because it is limiting their capabilities because it is traditional and we are in the 21st century but we can't single anyone out. Some teachers that are not using technology in their classrooms might not understand the whole concept and need help; are workshops available.