Why should I become an E2?
“Technology will never replace great teachers, but in the hands of great teachers, it’s transformational.” – George Couros
Teachers with digital tools can create learning experiences beyond what simple paper and textbook can accomplish. Watch the video below to understand what it means to become not just a teacher, but an empowered educator.
“We have unprecedented access to tools, to information, to interfaces. The question that digital pedagogy attempts to answer is: ‘So what? What do we do with them?’ – Lee Skallerup Bessette
The aim of the Empowered Educator Program for 21st Century Teaching is to help you answer these questions and prepare to answer them in your own future classrooms.
The Goal of the Program
The goal of the Empowered Educator Program (E2) is to help pre-service teachers develop the art of teaching with technology. The curriculum for this program has been created to support and reinforce the pedagogical knowledge and skills you will acquire from your courses, by making clear connections to the digital tools and digital methods of instruction. This is called digital pedagogy.
The focus of digital pedagogy is on transforming teaching and learning by leveraging digital tools for face to face, online—both synchronous and asynchronous—and blended learning. Digital pedagogy’s main focus is to guide educators in the critical selection of digital tools for the purpose of engaging students in varied and relevant ways to meet their learning objectives. Digital pedagogy is intentional, and student centered.
Texas Administrative Code 228.30(C)(8)
The Empowered Educator Program is a requirement of the Texas Education Agency (TEA). This requirement is intended to expand your learning of digital literacy, and your ability to teach using virtual instruction. Digital learning is no longer an optional add-on to your teaching. To be prepared for teaching, you must also be ready to do it online, face to face, or through a combination of modalities, including synchronous and asynchronous methods.
This statute also indicates the following: “instruction in digital learning, including a digital literacy evaluation followed by a prescribed digital learning curriculum.” After the pandemic, TEA has now also added “virtual instruction, virtual learning, digital literacy, and digital learning” to the statue.
The UTRGV College of Education Teacher Preparation Program now has the Empowered Educator Program for 21st Century Teaching that will help you meet and exceed these requirements.
The ISTE Standards for Educators
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has been setting high standards for the use of technology and technology-supported methods in the classroom for nearly 45 years. In Texas, the ISTE Standards for Educators have been selected to help you develop the skills and methods of an empowered educator who can teach with digital tools.
These standards, however, are not just about the technology: they are about the teaching that is supported by technology.
“The educator section of the ISTE Standards provides a road map to helping students become empowered learners. These standards will deepen your practice, promote collaboration with peers, challenge you to rethink traditional approaches and prepare students to drive their own learning.” (ISTE Standards, https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-teachers)
To read the full breakdown of the seven standards, click the link and video below.