Jonathan Skinner-Theories of Critical Thinking

 In today's world technology is used for many different aspects of life. It is used for communication, displaying images, learning, designing, and many other tools.  In the past decade, there has been a huge shift in education in how the information is transferred and relayed from the teachers to the students.  In today's world, standing in front of the class and simply lecturing and writing on the board does not suffice anymore.  It does not create a rigorous enough environment to create a sufficient level of deep learning.

   In the assigned articles, there is a somewhat repetitive thought behind the fact that educators can not simply stick to the traditional ways of teaching.  This is addressed thoroughly in the article how new pedagogies find deep learning. Educators have to step out of that comfort zone and really take on a new role.  These new pedagogies have to involve the students having a bigger role in how the information is delivered and learned.  This falls pretty heavily in the Blooms taxonomy model educators try to follow in that students need to spend more time analyzing information, creating and designing.  By doing this and having a more hands-on role, the students are able to enter a deep learning atmosphere.

   The use of technology is a great way to use new teaching methods and get students more engaged in today's classrooms.  However, there are still many teachers that may feel uncomfortable with the use of technology in the classrooms.  This falls into the category of adaptive learners.  With all the new technology schools have today there are some that are going to be more responsive to implementing these new styles of teaching, and there are going to be those that are less responsive and adaptive to it.  As time goes on and these new pedagogies continue to grow and become more popular, they will become more successful and teachers will become more comfortable with the use of them in their classrooms.  Educators have to more open and willing to use these because students learn differently in today's world.

  Once again, the articles are stressing the fact that teachers need to change and adapt to meet the different needs of the students.  Teachers need to be willing to let the students have a bigger role, and even at times let the students help the teachers learn.  There are times when there are students in the classrooms that may actually know how to use a source of technology better than the teacher.  This could be a teachable moment even for the teacher themselves.  I feel that Google Classroom, Edpuzzles, Newsela articles, etc. are great tools to use to let the students become more engages and have differentiated instruction to meet students needs.  However, as discussed in the article Empowering learners with digital and media literacy, we must as educators teach students how to correctly use technology and monitor what students are doing with technology.  The sky is the limit on what we can do as educators with the use of technology.  Teachers just have to be willing to adapt to it.