My Technology Strengths and Weaknesses

               Technology is an ever-present part of modern life, and can help provide for meaningful and engaging learning experiences for teachers and students alike. As librarians, we need to ensure that both students and teachers have access to technology to create and enhance meaningful learning experiences. To this end, the International Society for Technology In Education (ITSE) published a set of standards in 2008 for teachers called the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) to help gauge how well teachers incorporate technology into student learning.

                The NETS standards are broken into five major sections with several performance indicators listed in each. In my own case, I have differing strengths and weaknesses in each area. My biggest strengths fall under the category of "Model[ing] Digital Age Work and Learning" (ITSE, 2008, p. 1). Having grown up in the digital age, it is relatively simple for me to learn about new forms of technology and discover different ways to use them, making it easy to model these skills to others. Another strength falls under the category of "Promot[ing] and Model[ing] Digital Citizenship and Responsibility" (ITSE, 2008, p. 2). Through previous courses in this program, I have learned much about the ethics of using digital information and other forms of intellectual property. Similarly, knowledge of this would enable me to model such competencies for students and other teachers. One last strength falls under the category of "Engag[ing] in Professional Growth and Leadership" (ITSE, 2008, p. 2). Working on this master's program has served as both an initial education in library science as well as continued development that will continue beyond formal schooling. These strengths will allow me to discover new technologies to use when working with students and to model and promote ethical use of technology and intellectual property. Furthermore, continued development will help me to continue to develop my current strengths and eventually turn my weaknesses into strengths.

                Just as I have strengths in the NETS standards, I have weaknesses as well. My biggest weakness falls under the second category of the NETS standards, "Design[ing] and Develop[ing] Digital Age Learning Experience and Assessments" (ITSE, 2008, p. 1).  My biggest weakness here is a lack of experience in designing lessons that incorporate technology to create engaging learning experiences for students. To date, I have only the teaching experience of my student teaching semester in college, and while I did incorporate technology throughout that experience, I require more practice to be truly effective at this standard. Similarly, my other weakness lies in the category of "Facilitat[ing] and Inspir[ing] Student Learning and Creativity" (ITSE, 2008, p. 1). A lack of experience is again the culprit for the weakness in this area, specifically in how to engage students in solving problems using creativity. As with all skills, practice seems to be the ultimate teacher, and will allow me, along with further professional development, to turn these weaknesses into strengths. Similarly, I would like to try and keep up with the technologies that are available, specifically for instructional use, in order to best determine what will best help students to learn and teachers to teach. Also, continuing to learn about instructional strategies would help me to improve my instructional strategies and allow me to find the best ways to incorporate technology into instruction.

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National Education Technology Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2