Teacher Competencies
According to Johnson (2013), best teaching practices should drive technology use in the classroom, rather than technology driving teaching practice. As Johnson put it:
But what should remain certain is that good teaching practices should drive technology use instead of technology driving the practice of teaching. If the use of technology to enrich learning is ever to become effective, we must stop regarding it as a separate entity and see it as part of everyday instruction. Danielson (2007) developed a rubric for effective teacher technology use. The rubric is organised into four domains: planning and preparation; the classroom environment; instruction; and professional responsibilities.
Wiltfelt (2002) focussed on technology competencies and identified two basic skills required to successfully adopt technology in learning. He states that teachers must be able to use ICT and multimedia with the same ease and fluency as they read, write and do basic arithmetic. The two competencies he identified are general ICT-literacy skills and ICT/multimedia competence. The first includes the ability to use ICT at a navigational level and includes general methods of working with ICT such as non- |
application-specific, machine-independent problem-solving strategies. The second competence includes the ability to navigate in hypermedia, using search facilities, help-functions, etc., and is more application specific. The more specialised the software, the greater the need for training in that software.
References Johnson, Doug (2013). Power Up! Technology skills every teacher needs. Technology-Rich Learning, 70(6), 84-85. Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice: A Framework for teaching (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Witfelt, Claus. (2002). Educational Multimedia and Teacher Competencies. In S. M. Rahman (Ed.), Interactive Multimedia Systems (pp. 136-145). Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA: IGI Global. |