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Teaching Philosophy Statement

Marissa Vernoia

West Chester University

WRH 325: Technology and the English Classroom

Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Kruger-Ross

February 25, 2020

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Teaching Philosophy Statement

I believe that technology is a powerful educational tool that can benefit both teachers and

students. Technology allows teachers to give the students the ability to take control of their own

learning while taking a step back to see what their students have mastered. For students,

technology not only gives them more opportunities to showcase their strengths, but also allows

prepares them for a world where understanding and creating multiple modalities is crucial.

Technology gets a lot of negative backlash – mainly from stereotypes that younger generations

cannot function without it or that it ruins young people’s minds – but it is an invaluable tool that

pushes the field of education as a whole and effectively prepares students for the rest of their

lives.

Technology allows students to feel like they have control over their education, which is

something that students in the past were often left without. By having more control, students are

also able to have more options in terms of how they want to learn material or how they want to

showcase their mastery of concepts. According to the ISTE, “Students leverage technology to

take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals,

informed by the learning sciences” (ISTE, 2016). Integrating technology into the classroom

provides students with the ability to become active citizens in their education by being in control

of their learning and choosing how they show their mastery in ways that work best for them.

These ways can include multimodal projects like creating websites, videos, or artwork. Besides

allowing students freedom in their learning, the use of multimodal projects allows students to

improve their literacy in multiple modalities.

In order to communicate successfully within the quickly changing digital world, students

need to be able to compose multiple modalities for a variety of purposes and audiences in
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preparation for their future professions (Takayoshi & Selfe, 2007, p3). It is imperative that

teachers are comfortable teaching their students not only how to read and understand multiple

modalities, but also how to create multiple modalities on their own. The world is constantly

changing, and with it, technology has become an important part of students’ everyday lives. With

the rise of technology, literacy no longer means just the ability to read and write but has

expanded to include being able to navigate and use technology proficiently. The NCTE states

that “There are multiple ways people communicate in a variety of social contexts…the way

people communicate increasingly necessitates networked, technological mediation. To that end,

relying exclusively on traditional definitions of literacy unnecessarily limits the ways students

can communicate and the ways educators can imagine curriculum and pedagogy” (NCTE, 2018).

Teachers who reject technology do a disservice to their students since technological literacy has

become just as important as traditional literacies. However, traditional literacies should not be

abandoned because their importance has not diminished with the rise of technology. As Ernest

Morrell states, “we have to figure out how to inject our discipline with these new tools and ways

of communication as concepts such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking take on new

dimensions in the media age” (Morrell, 2013, p301-302). Without integrating technology into

traditional language arts, we are failing to prepare our students for the real world.

Technology is also beneficial to both teachers and students because it helps to broaden

perspectives through collaboration and teamwork. Technological platforms that permit multiple

students in a group to work on the same project at once – like Google Drive – allows for each

group member to share their thoughts and put their own ideas into group work. With so much

diversity in not only schools but also the world, learning from and understanding one another has

never been so important as it is today; thus, using collaborative technologies like digital project
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spaces allows students to work with their peers in order to examine issues from multiple

viewpoints (ISTE, 2016). Students from different backgrounds may also have had different

literacy development depending on socioeconomic factors, and so encouraging student

collaboration through technology allows for students to help one another be comfortable with

creating multiple modalities with ease (NCTE, 2005).

Technology is always changing, and so it is in my students’ best interests if I keep up and

adapt with the advancements that are sure to come. With the definition of literacy changing to

include the ability to understand and create technology/multiple modalities, I need to be willing

to learn as technology changes for the sake of my students. If this means attending professional

development in regard to technology in the classroom, then I will do that I need to in order to

ensure that my students are being best prepared in my classroom for the real world. Technology

is only going to continue to evolve, and so I will evolve my teaching practices as it changes.
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References

International Society for Technology in Education (2016). ISTE standards for students.

Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Morrell, E. (2012). 21st‐century literacies, critical media pedagogies, and language arts. The

Reading Teacher, 66(4), 300-302.

NCTE (2005). Multimodality literacies. NCTE Position Statement. Retrieved

from http://www2.ncte.org/statement/multimodalliteracies/

NCTE (2018). Beliefs for integrating technology into the English language arts classroom.

NCTE Position Statement. Retrieved from http://www2.ncte.org/statement/beliefs-

technology-preparation-english-teachers/

Takayoshi, P., & Selfe, C. L. (2007). Thinking about multimodality. Multimodal composition:

Resources for teachers, 1-12. Hampton Press.