I took the technology self-assessment through the School 2.0 website. The assessment showed my strengths and weaknesses in the different NETS-T performance indicators. I chose my weakest area and investigated ways I could improve.
I chose to investigate NETS-T 4 (I involve students in opportunities to develop cultural understanding and global awareness through digital-age communications and collaboration projects with students from other countries) because it was the section that was indicated I could use more knowledge in.
I visited the site for the organization Global Education Motivators. http://www.gem-ngo.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
This is a non-profit organization that was created in order to help students meet the challenges of living in a global world. Through this site, you can have access to live lectures that will be streamed to the students in your class, but not only can the students hear the lecture, the guest lecturer can interact with the students and hear their questions and comments. I think this is a cool idea to get speakers in your class who you would otherwise not be able to schedule. They have lectures that cover a wide array of topics, and because I aim to teach high school science, I found a couple on climate change that seem like they would be interesting me. I was a little put off by the price, they seem to be around $175 for a 45 min-1 hour lecture, but there might be ways to apply for a grant or raise funding if you found a lecture that was particularly appealing and appropriate. I think it would help with the NETS standard because not only would the students be hearing a lecture from someone in another part of the world, but class’s from other parts of the world would also be listening, and the students could hear questions and comments from these other areas as well.
