The 21st-Century Teacher Educator and ...

5 downloads 9044 Views 273KB Size Report
sentence owns a smartphone. ... pated in that conference call while you were commuting. Most of you use video conferencing regularly, and many of you.
Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education

ISSN: 2153-2974 (Print) 2332-7383 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujdl20

The 21st-Century Teacher Educator and Crowdsourcing Teresa S. Foulger To cite this article: Teresa S. Foulger (2014) The 21st-Century Teacher Educator and Crowdsourcing, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 30:4, 110-110, DOI: 10.1080/21532974.2014.927205 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2014.927205

Published online: 13 Aug 2014.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 85

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ujdl20 Download by: [Arizona State University Libraries]

Date: 08 February 2016, At: 11:16

President’s Message j Teresa S. Foulger

Downloaded by [Arizona State University Libraries] at 11:16 08 February 2016

The 21st-Century Teacher Educator and Crowdsourcing

A

lmost every person reading this sentence owns a smartphone. And I know I could win a large bet on whether or not the majority of you checked your text messages before your feet hit the floor this morning. I’m pretty sure you had at least one conference call last week with someone on another continent. Some of you participated in that conference call while you were commuting. Most of you use video conferencing regularly, and many of you habitually work at any combination of the local Starbucks, in bed, at the kitchen table, in your office, and/or while sitting in a meeting. I don’t want to speak in generalities, but all the teacher educators I know have grown to rely on technology. We don’t see our mobile device as a luxury, but as a necessity. Many of us opt to pay more for our communications bills than we do for the car we drive. I personally carry a laptop, iPad, and smartphone with me almost everywhere I go. The cloud is my friend; I feel lost without my documents

close at hand. Let’s face it, in today’s technology-driven and globalized world, being able to work anytime, anywhere is a professional expectation. The 21st century has brought with it convenient and ubiquitous access to billions of resources and then some, in milliseconds, from my mobile device. From my person, I can communicate with any of our colleagues, even globally, 24/7. Yet I don’t believe any of us have tapped the potential . . . yet. Normally new ideas are created by the few who function as innovators. We publish our research, we present at professional development workshops, and we attend conferences. All these are traditional ways of sharing what innovators think and do. By contrast, crowdsourcing (Brabham, 2013) has been used to drive ideas of the masses. It relies on collaboration and is most effective using social networking tools via the Internet. Large numbers of people can participate in crowdsourcing events at any time of the day, from anywhere there is access to the Internet, through any digital device. This technique of innovation has had huge success in business and industry, but has yet to show impact in education in great ways. In a more specific sense, when using crowdsourcing, problems are broadcast in the form of an open call. Thoughts, perspectives, and ideas are provided in an online environment. Conversations can lead to an outcome or decision. As you might imagine, when crowdsourcing is effective, no one person can be identified as the innovator. Our Teacher Education Network (TEN) has more than 2,400 members,

© 2014 ISTE j iste.org/jdlte

110

l Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education l Volume 30 Issue 4

worldwide. We are a group of professional educators who instruct and support inservice and preservice teachers in the effective use of technology. The purpose of TEN is to innovate. Think of the brain trust in this group. Our TEN Communications Officer, Torrey Trust, has established online tools for members to potentially conduct crowdsourcing experiences. These tools will help you connect, engage in conversations, share your expertise, and build networks surrounding professional endeavors. Social Media Ambassadors are selected, to host a conversation surrounding a relevant and timely topic any member feels is important and timely to our field. Our platforms include: 

LinkedIn: ISTE Teacher Education Network.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ iste.ten  Twitter: #TEPLN hashtag Any TEN member with a topic of conversation for the greater good for teacher educators can host a crowdsourcing experiment by harnessing the power of social media. All you need to do is submit your idea here: http://sigte.iste. wikispaces.net/SocialCMediaC Ambassadors. The idea is for TEN members to unite for common causes, to come up with solutions, and to make large-scale differences. Think of the brain trust we each have access to!

Reference Brabham, D. C. (2013). Crowdsourcing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.