5c.   Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership 

Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, 
and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting 
and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.  Specifically, teachers evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.

REFLECTIONS ON NETS-T-5c:

To stay abreast of research and classroom practices in the fields of mathematics education and technology education, I am part of several educational associations and leadership groups whose mission it is to promote “universal access to mathematics” and “intelligent use of information technology. “ These memberships give me opportunities to “evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis.” EDUCAUSE is a professional development group for which I have an affinity and in which I have found scholars with research agendas that are similar to mine. When the question I was research was “Do Web 2.0 technologies advantage or disadvantage different cognitive styles, learning styles, or conative capabilities?”, I turned to scholars in EDUCAUSE and became acquainted with the work of Thomas C. Reeves at the University of Georgia and I became reacquainted with the work of fellow UMASS alum, Chris Dede, the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Rekindling the volitional/brain synchronization paradigm that characterized the theoretical center of my research of the 80s and 90s has been an intellectual treat and challenge during this sabbatical leave. Click here to see my navigation route through EDUCAUSE which lead me to an affinity group of scholars and researchers attempting to answer my same research queries.

Click here to see the Rationales for Artifacts associated with this Standard.