Raegan Stambaugh

EDC 370

Dr. Store

Philosophy of Instructional Technology

As a teacher I plan to incorporate technology into my lessons. Although I've had a strong

interest in technology since I was a child, I hope to use it purposefully and appropriately. It's

important that technology isn't just a fancy add-on, but rather a tool for helping students

understand the world. The goal of utilizing educational technology is to improve pedagogy and

allow students to learn. As educators, we use a variety of tools, and this toolset includes various

types of technology. The main advantage of using technology is that it can greatly expand the

types of lessons in which students can participate.

Compassion for students, openness to what they are capable of, and recognizing their

differences are among my most important educational values. Educational technology enables

me to be more compassionate by allowing me to differentiate a lesson more effectively, better

understand my students through their work, and provide more opportunities for student voice.

One way I provide this voice is through multimedia presentations and integrated technologies

that serve as summative assessments of the students' understanding. These kinds of activities

help students remember what they've learned.

When I am a teacher I will be utilizing the ISTE standards and they will be extremely

important to use in my classroom.The ISTE Standards provide the competencies for learning,

teaching and leading in the digital age, providing a comprehensive roadmap for the effective use

of technology in schools worldwide. These standards will deepen my practice, encourage peer
collaboration, push me to reconsider traditional approaches, and prepare students to drive their

own learning.

Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance of information,

media, data, or other resources using these standards. Students create collections of artifacts that

demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions by curating information from digital

resources using a variety of tools and methods.

ISTE teacher standards place high demands on technology educators. I believe these

standards prepare teachers to teach advanced concepts and technology in the classroom. It also

encourages me to collaborate with other teachers to share ideas for engaging our students.

When parents are informed about how educators are utilizing technology for meaningful

learning, they are more likely to become enthusiastic supporters of school technology. I want to

have parents be as involved in their student’s learning as possible. I plan to do this by planning

events such as a family technology night to teach parents about technology that students are

using in their classrooms. This way parents can be kept informed and are better prepared to help

guide their students learning outside of the classroom.

I will continue to balance instructional technology and learning goals by using various

modes of communication, channeling creativity, and choosing collaboration. There are

numerous ways I hope to see my students' writing appear that combine two or more modes (such

as visual, audio or spatial). Such as making e-books, videos, animations, blogs, web pages, and

digital games are some of the new ways to demonstrate literacy that involve clever combinations

of these modes. When it comes to channeling creativity I want to allow students the opportunity

to allow students to produce and not just consume. I want students to be interactive and creative
in their use of teachnology. I want to give students opportunities to work together in learning and

engaging with digital media. I think collaborative digital activities can be used to engage

students in higher order thinking skills and explore content in depth with the support of

classmates. This includes devices and software that allow multi-user learning and encourage

students to interact with each other. This includes interactive discussion boards or applications

where students can experience a digital learning environment together.

I plan to continue to learn about instructional technology through education leadership

programs, through trial and error in the classroom, and through professional development. I hope

with my background and experience with ISTE standards and technology through my teacher

education program at Alma College that I will be able to take lead on these types of professional

development settings. I look forward to the opportunities to make use of technology in my own

classroom to allow students to learn in various ways to promote my student’s learning.