Teachers as Change Agents

Another week has flown by and it is time for me to check in with what I have learned about technology integration in the Modern Language classroom. After reading an article written by Peggy Ertmer and Anne T. Ottenbreit-Leftwich I came to one conclusion with regards to the role and the teacher and the role of technology in my classroom. That conclusion is; I am still the entity that must inspire, challenge, and lead my students. I am choosing to use a variety of technology tools to facilitate the learning but it is I who must create the environment for growth and change. Simply adopting a new software or a new App will not bring about that growth.

The community college where I teach supports my aspiration to learn and integrate the most appropriate technology into the learning experience. A few years ago they added a new position to lead technology-enhanced instruction (TEI) across the campus. Since, we have been afforded individual and small group training. They review the instructional application and effectiveness of tools and share the information via newsletters, a website, and a resource list. 

Outside Cuzco, Peru (Photo taken by Theresa Baginski)

The administration, most of my colleagues, and of course the TEI team recognize that our students will need to use technology in their future careers. As one of my colleagues in the Elevate course pointed out, our Modern Language students in the future will need to use their language skills via technology far more often then face to face and we need to prepare them for that communication platform. The notion that technology integration is simply 'bells and whistles' fails to acknowledge that our world is entirely dependent upon technology and regardless of the field of study students pursue they will have to understand the application of technology to be effective and successful. 

This takes me back to the beginning of this post where I acknowledge that merely using a form of technology will not bring about change. Teachers who do that are just adding 'bells and whistles' to their instruction. In order to truly be a change agent we have to thoughtfully consider the intended learning outcomes and then apply the most appropriate technology. But that isn't all we need to do;

we also need to determine how to use the technology to push our students to those higher-level thinking skills of evaluate, analyze, and create within our content areas. This requires energy, patience, determination, and a willingness to fail on occasion. 

We ask our students to venture into the unknown everyday. Why wouldn't we expect the same of ourselves? 

Until next week,

Cuzco, Peru (Photo taken by Theresa Baginski)