This is our wonderful full-time volunteer, Miss Pauline. She is a GREAT-Grandmother raising a former student of ours. She just kept coming after her great-granddaughter went on to high school. She is a treasure for many reasons!

Jackie:

The NETS standards and and the ICT4LT website both outline knowledge and skills that language teachers are expected to have. But since technology changes so quickly, skills become obsolete. How is it possible for pre- and in-service teacher development programs to give teachers the necessary skills?

My question is since you do many inservices, both online and in person, what have been some of the things that you have seen teachers asked to improve their tech skills? What have been some of the things you wished they asked?  Also since you teach technology how do you decide which applications (or skills) to teach since most likely those skills will change or become obsolete?

Me:

I think schools -- in meeting the needs of both kids and adults -- should focus on making sure that folks are prepared to do their jobs in an increasingly information-saturated and global environment.

It's really important to emphasize skills like:

• media and information literacy (how to get around on the web, find what you need, etc.);
• how to build a robust personal learning network that will help you keep pace with rapidly changing tools/skills/tech (i.e. following blogs in your subject, communicating with others about what's happening in the field);
• keep the focus on teaching and learning via technology tools instead of getting bogged down or obsessed with specific software, hardware, or web services. 

You have to learn some tech skills to do all of the above but as you can see, it really isn't about the technology itself. 

Stay tuned.

Learning to capture reflections...