Running head: BECOMING A 21st CENTURY TEACHER 1

Becoming a 21st Century Teacher

Taryn N. Roberts

Azusa Pacific University

Cadre 29
BECOMING A 21st CENTURY TEACHER 2

Becoming a 21st Century Teacher

Beginning the Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology (EDTC) at Azusa

Pacific University, I was excited but nervous about the journey I was about to embark on. I was

questioning whether I could handle the workload along with teaching full time. Now that I am

coming to the end of my program, it has been very powerful to look back on what I have

accomplished. I believe that I have grown in so many ways and I now have the skillset to be an

effective 21st century teacher for my students as well as an asset to my school site.

Personal Growth

I have grown immensely throughout this educational journey, but the most apparent

growth I have seen in myself has been in my spiritual walk with God, my outlook on technology

implementation and its role in the classroom, and finally my overall confidence as a 21st century

teacher.

I have grown spiritually in my walk with Jesus with the incredible help from my

cadremates and professors who have set amazing examples of what being a Christian truly

means. Before starting the EDTC program, I was very reluctant to discuss my spirituality and my

beliefs because it felt too personal to me. I now understand that discussing our shared beliefs

gives us all an opportunity to learn and grow from each other.

I have also noticed a change in my approach to implementing technology. When I began

this program, I was implementing technology at a very basic level and was still struggling to

make it meaningful. I feel as if I now have the skillset to seek out technology that will be

beneficial for my students as well as maintain their attention in a meaningful way. I have been

given an abundance of resources to use in my own classroom, but I have also been given the

skills to create my own to tailor my classroom as needed using the Adobe software.
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Lastly, I have noticed a significant change in my confidence. I feel as if I am equipped to

be a leader at my school site when it comes to technology and its implementation. During EDTC

520, Managing Technology Supported Curricular Tools, taught by Professor Silver, I had the

opportunity to create a professional development presentation that I would share with my

coworkers (Silver, 2017). This assignment challenged me to think of myself as a technology

leader at my school site. Dennis Sparks wrote that [s]chools rise and fall based on the quality of

the teamwork that occurs within their walls. Well-functioning leadership and teaching teams are

essential to the continuous improvement of teaching and learning. (2013. para. 1) I now have

the skills to be able to share my knowledge with others and collaborate with my team to best

support our students. I would like to encourage other teachers and help them understand

educational technology and hopefully build a strong technology rich team at my own school site.

Professional Growth

Professionally, I have made a huge improvement over the course of this program. We

have been given a vast knowledge of technology implementation making us leaders in our

schools, a new perspective on technology implementation, and finally exposure to resources and

experiences that have helped mold us into 21st century teachers.

This program has affected my career by preparing me to be a leader of technology

implementation. I feel confident now that I can explore and try new technology in my own class

and determine if it is an effective tool to share with my staff. Simply having the hardware and

software in place does not mean that teachers are using these tools in a pedagogically sound

manner or that students are learning from the tools in value enhanced ways. (Richardson, Flora,

& Bathon, n.d. p. 146) This program was not just about attaining a masters degree, but to truly

learn why the technology would be beneficial in the classroom. If we are willing to try something
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new without the fear of failure then we may have opportunities to truly optimize the learning for

our students.

Technology is a part of our students lives and, as teachers, we need to utilize it as a

necessary teaching tool rather than an added activity. Understanding that technology cannot be

kept from students in schools has helped me change my perspective as an educator. I now see

that I should be teaching my students how to utilize technology to access information in a safe

and responsible manner. Technology has given access to the world around them in ways that we

have never be able to before and I think that as educators we need to be helping them be

functioning members of the society that they will be living in; a society that is completely

saturated with technology.

I am proud of many accomplishments throughout this entire program, however, I feel that

the greatest one has been the Global Learning Project. I would have considered myself to be a

novice when it comes to technology, but I was able to create a functioning website that was both

visually appealing and user friendly in order to host a Global Learning Project of my own.

Unfortunately, I did not have any participants in my project, but I was able to get my own

classroom to participate. My students had a blast with it and each one of the drawing

assignments and expressed a sense of pride when showing them off. I have a great sense of

accomplishment with this project and my website is something I am very proud of.

Teaching is truly a practice versus a profession and I think that teachers need to be

continuously learning and improving their abilities. The main point I took away from

participating in this program has been the importance of being open to new things and trying new

methods of teaching.
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Technical Growth

The last area I have made significant growth in has been with my technical skills. This

program has exposed us to so many new resources and required us to try programs I was

unfamiliar with. I feel now that this was to emerge us into the technology that would help us

grow as professionals. I have made the most improvements using Adobe products such as

acrobat and Photoshop, identifying effective and non-effective resources for the classroom, as

well as creating original content such as videos, websites, and visuals.

When I first began the program, I was only familiar with Adobe Acrobat in the sense that

I could open, save, and share PDFs. After completing our first class, my Adobe skills greatly

improved. During our EDTC 521, Digital Imagery for Learning Environments with Professor

Temple, we were asked to utilize the creative features of Adobe such as Photoshop to create our

own content. We were asked to research how to use the program on our own time. I think it was

a great learning experience for us to do the leg work ourselves and gain experience using the

tools and discussing how we may use them in our own classrooms. (Temple, 2017)

I felt that Professor Silver helped me grow as an evaluator by requiring us to look

objectively at the current resources that we have in our schools now and determine whether we

thought they were effective programs. We were asked to create a rubric to determine the level of

effectiveness and I truly believe that this was a skill that we could use as the technology leaders

in our school sites. (Silver, 2017) I can speak with confidence knowing that I am able to evaluate

the program and determine whether or not I would like to use that resource in my classroom. I

think this particular assignment helped me think about the experience that the child would have

using this resource and whether or not it is something I would like to utilize in my classroom.
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Lastly, I have grown significantly in my ability to create original content for my

students. Before starting this program, I was only able to create a Microsoft Word document and

then save it as a PDF. I would add simple clip art as well, but my skills were lacking to say the

least. After completing this program, I have now created original instructions videos recording

my screen, voice, or even myself on camera. I have learned how to implement green screen

technology to create interesting and effective videos. I was able to create an original website with

all original content, with the exception of a few copyright free images, and was even able to

create my own images using Canva. Jennifer Demski states in her article for THE Journal,

that[] technology seems to be ready to do its part to provide a more personalized learning

environment for every student (01/04/12, 2012. para. 3) but as teachers, we need to be able to

effectively use technology in a way that would personalize their learning.

The skills I have learned throughout this program will help me create individualized

curriculum that is specific to my classrooms needs. I now feel that I am qualified to not only

create, but modify and evaluate the effectiveness of a technology resource I am interested in

using in my classroom.

Life Long Learning Plan

This program has given me the skills and resources needed to continue my own learning

beyond this degree. I intend on utilizing these skills and resources to truly become a lifelong

learner in order to stay relevant for myself as well as my students. I plan to utilize the following

to continue my learning:

Twitter - Maintaining my Professional Learning Network

Edmodo collaborating with teachers and other learning communities

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Professional Developments any professional developments relevant to technology

offered by my district or surrounding areas

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) allows me to stay connected

to the most up to date technology information and resources

National Education Association (NEA) public education community

Conclusion

Ultimately what I have gathered from my experiences in this program has been a drastic

change in mindset when approaching teaching with technology. I believe I now have the skills to

not only utilize technology supported tools, but to teach my students how to function in a

technology rich world. This program has helped me become a lifelong learner that will seek new

ways to implement technology in meaningful ways and has given me a great support system

along the way. I believe this program will continue to bless me and shape me into a better

teacher long after it is over.

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Course History

EDTC 511 Foundations in Educational

Technology
Dr. Kathleen Bacer
Fall 1 2016
EDTC 527 Special Topic in Educational
I learned the basics of using Adobe Acrobat. Technology
Professor Barry Bettger
Fall 1 2016
I created a Personal Learning Network on
EDTC 517 Digital Twitter.
Communications
(Will complete Fall 2017)

EDTC 518 Global Learning/ Cross

Cultural Classroom
EDTC 526 Practicum in Professor Barbara McMillan
Application of Technology Fall 2 2017
Dr. Kathleen Bacer This class I began to plan for my Global
Learning Project (GLP) and see many
Summer 2017 examples of GLP's.
We created our final portfolio
and did a final assessment of
our growth in the program.

EDTC 521 Digital Imagery/Learning

Environments
EDTC 515 Emerging Trends in
Technology Professor Tory Temple

Dr. James Brown Spring 1 2017

Summer 2017 We learned how to make our own

videos.
We were able to join a MOOC
and discuss the trends in
technology.

EDTC 523 Info Design/Hypermedia

Professor Kathryn Price
EDTC 524 Instructional Design Spring 1 2017
and Development We learned how to refine our Global
Professor Kathryn Price Learning Projects to reflect appropriate
EDTC 520 Managing a Technology web design.
Spring 2 2017
Supported Curriculum
We learned how to create a
Professor Elizabeth Silver
Backwards Design Unit Plan.
Spring 2 2017
This class we created our own
professional development that
we could share with our school
site.
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References

Azusa Pacific University Logo. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.apu.edu/

Demski01/04/12, J. (2012, January 04). This Time It's Personal. Retrieved from

https://thejournal.com/articles/2012/01/04/personalized-learning.aspx. para. 3

Richardson, J. W., Flora, K., & Bathon, J. (n.d.). Fostering a School Technology Vision

in School Leaders. 146.

Silver, E. (2017). EDTC520: Managing Technology Supported Curricular Tools. Online Master
of Arts in Educational Technology. School of Education, Azusa Pacific University.

Azusa, CA. Retrieved from http://sakai.apu.edu.

Sparks, D. (2013). Strong Teams, Strong Schools. 28.

Temple, T. (2017). EDTC521: Digital Imagery for Learning Environments. Online Master
of Arts in Educational Technology. School of Education, Azusa Pacific University.

Azusa, CA. Retrieved from http://sakai.apu.edu.