21 Century Skills

This might sound cliche, but the most important skill I think students should have with technology is actually being able to use it to answer their questions.  This generation is so used to just be handed an answer (mainly because of the great tool of Google), but this seems to have made students even more lazy than ever.  If they can just ask for an answer, they would rather do that than even pick up their device and look it up!  As a math teacher when I ask them to show their work, they think the world has ended.  Many times answers are posted around the room or I let students use a device on a quiz and they still want to ask me basic questions instead of just taking the time to find the answer themselves.

There are so many amazing things that people can use technology for.  But the most basic thing is one of the most powerful things it provides...answers!!!

Since more and more schools have technology or even 1:1, hopefully the standardized testing goes along with that.  Adding ISTEP to a computer does not seem to even touch the tip of what we could be testing kids now that technology is so prevalent.  I would like to be able to assess students on their ability to move past the basics of mathematical foundations at an Algebra level and allow technology to help them in any way they can come up with to be able to reach an answer.  That is what they would be able to do outside the walls of the school, so why not inside.
Assessing this could be done in many ways.  How student work collaboratively, being able to reach an answer, explaining how the technology guided them to a solution, etc... are all ways that I could assess that students are utilizing technology to its fullest potential.

I could go on forever about this topic, but that seems to sum it up!