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.
Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness.
Artifact - Diversity Blog
As my artifact for Standard 4.3,, Diversity, Cultural Understand & Global Awareness, I have chosen my Diversity Blog which I wrote for ITEC 7430, Internet Tools for the classroom.
When we use the word diversity, we can be referring to race, religion, tradition, social class, or individual ability levels. Although diversity is something all teachers are taught to address, I had never really thought of it in relation to the Internet before this assignment. Through researching diversity as it relates to technology, I learned to model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support individual student needs, to enhance cultural understanding, and to increase global awareness.
The world today is changing and morphing into a global society. People travel more and international trade is growing steadily. With this global perspective, it becomes necessary that our students learn not just tolerance, but appreciation and respect of other cultures and beliefs in order to live and do business alongside people across the world. In my research, I learned that our students score much lower than students of other cultures on world geography and knowledge of other countries' customs. The Internet provides us tools to use in the classroom to connect to students of other countries and cultures to help us remedy this deficit.
I learned through this assignment that, when teaching diversity, it may be wise to start small and discuss the diversity that exists in the classroom before moving outside the classroom walls. EPals and The Flat Classroom Project are examples of tools that help connect students to their peers across the globe. Through these digital resources, it is possible to differentiate instruction to address the diverse needs and abilities of the learner. Students can collaborate in student-driven instruction to learn about their similarities and differences, just as through my diversity blog, I connected with my peers to discuss and reflect on best practices to enhance diversity education with technology.
The work that went into creating this artifact had impacted professional learning as I have become an advocate for incorporating ePals into classroom instruction. My foreign language teachers are now using it regularly which has impacted student learning by connecting them with a diversity of their peers around the globe. The impact is assessed by observing student engagement when collaborating with their peers digitally, and by listening to their comments about what they have learned about the cultures and individuals with whom they interact.
When we use the word diversity, we can be referring to race, religion, tradition, social class, or individual ability levels. Although diversity is something all teachers are taught to address, I had never really thought of it in relation to the Internet before this assignment. Through researching diversity as it relates to technology, I learned to model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support individual student needs, to enhance cultural understanding, and to increase global awareness.
The world today is changing and morphing into a global society. People travel more and international trade is growing steadily. With this global perspective, it becomes necessary that our students learn not just tolerance, but appreciation and respect of other cultures and beliefs in order to live and do business alongside people across the world. In my research, I learned that our students score much lower than students of other cultures on world geography and knowledge of other countries' customs. The Internet provides us tools to use in the classroom to connect to students of other countries and cultures to help us remedy this deficit.
I learned through this assignment that, when teaching diversity, it may be wise to start small and discuss the diversity that exists in the classroom before moving outside the classroom walls. EPals and The Flat Classroom Project are examples of tools that help connect students to their peers across the globe. Through these digital resources, it is possible to differentiate instruction to address the diverse needs and abilities of the learner. Students can collaborate in student-driven instruction to learn about their similarities and differences, just as through my diversity blog, I connected with my peers to discuss and reflect on best practices to enhance diversity education with technology.
The work that went into creating this artifact had impacted professional learning as I have become an advocate for incorporating ePals into classroom instruction. My foreign language teachers are now using it regularly which has impacted student learning by connecting them with a diversity of their peers around the globe. The impact is assessed by observing student engagement when collaborating with their peers digitally, and by listening to their comments about what they have learned about the cultures and individuals with whom they interact.