4.3 Diversity, Cultural Understanding & Global Awareness
Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness. (PSC 4.3/ISTE 5c)
Artifact: Article
Reflection:
This document is an article I wrote in the spring of 2014. The article was written for the ITEC 7430 course, Internet Tools in the Classroom. The article is about diversity in the classroom through the use of digital tools, the reality of reaching all learners in the classroom, and how technology can be a bigger help that one would expect. The article was shared with my professional learning community to help build awareness, and it was published on my educational blog.
Standard 4.3 notes that candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness. This article demonstrates my understanding of global citizens, differentiation, and supporting each learner’s diverse student needs. Particularly the use of digital tools to enhance cultural understanding is addressed as I mention a variety of methods by which students can connect to peers and professionals in order to make learning more authentic. Increasing global awareness is also a centerpiece to this article as I address the tools and methods by which students can further learn about global issues and how they can become involved. Furthermore, the wonderful way in which a variety of digital tools allows for supporting diverse student needs is mentioned, as differentiation has never been easier than it is now with the plethora of digital tools available.
I read and researched a great deal in order to write this article. Prior to this research, my understanding of fostering global citizens was quite superficial. I didn’t think profoundly on the magnitude of reach that technology has on connecting students globally. I learned that the ability to facilitate and model global citizenship, cultural understanding, meeting diverse student needs is directly related to the teachers desire, their perceptions regarding its importance, and their ability to access technology regularly. Through the composition of this article I was able to further develop my vision for technology use in school and how it can mold culturally aware and more tolerant individuals. Oftentimes it is easy to become complacent in class and not address the whole world of diverse people out there; however, digital tools and resources make enhancing cultural understanding and increased global awareness, and supporting diverse student needs a reality. This article helped me understand my responsibilities as a 21st century educator to model and facilitate global citizenship more prolifically. If I was given the opportunity to write this article again, I would consider adding more about how my colleagues use digital tools to reach their diverse populations, as I feel that they are very strong in this area, and increasing understanding about what we all do would lead to growth amongst us.
Of course, student growth is at the heart of educational institutions. And, while many, many hurdles can come between teachers and students developing global awareness, this is an issue that should be on the mend. Technology provides a very real opportunity for creating global citizens, a tolerant 21st century society, and more targeted and effective learning opportunities for diverse student needs.
Reflection:
This document is an article I wrote in the spring of 2014. The article was written for the ITEC 7430 course, Internet Tools in the Classroom. The article is about diversity in the classroom through the use of digital tools, the reality of reaching all learners in the classroom, and how technology can be a bigger help that one would expect. The article was shared with my professional learning community to help build awareness, and it was published on my educational blog.
Standard 4.3 notes that candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness. This article demonstrates my understanding of global citizens, differentiation, and supporting each learner’s diverse student needs. Particularly the use of digital tools to enhance cultural understanding is addressed as I mention a variety of methods by which students can connect to peers and professionals in order to make learning more authentic. Increasing global awareness is also a centerpiece to this article as I address the tools and methods by which students can further learn about global issues and how they can become involved. Furthermore, the wonderful way in which a variety of digital tools allows for supporting diverse student needs is mentioned, as differentiation has never been easier than it is now with the plethora of digital tools available.
I read and researched a great deal in order to write this article. Prior to this research, my understanding of fostering global citizens was quite superficial. I didn’t think profoundly on the magnitude of reach that technology has on connecting students globally. I learned that the ability to facilitate and model global citizenship, cultural understanding, meeting diverse student needs is directly related to the teachers desire, their perceptions regarding its importance, and their ability to access technology regularly. Through the composition of this article I was able to further develop my vision for technology use in school and how it can mold culturally aware and more tolerant individuals. Oftentimes it is easy to become complacent in class and not address the whole world of diverse people out there; however, digital tools and resources make enhancing cultural understanding and increased global awareness, and supporting diverse student needs a reality. This article helped me understand my responsibilities as a 21st century educator to model and facilitate global citizenship more prolifically. If I was given the opportunity to write this article again, I would consider adding more about how my colleagues use digital tools to reach their diverse populations, as I feel that they are very strong in this area, and increasing understanding about what we all do would lead to growth amongst us.
Of course, student growth is at the heart of educational institutions. And, while many, many hurdles can come between teachers and students developing global awareness, this is an issue that should be on the mend. Technology provides a very real opportunity for creating global citizens, a tolerant 21st century society, and more targeted and effective learning opportunities for diverse student needs.