Reinventing the teacher - what five years of technology has done to change the face of teaching

Ever feel like you are spinning your wheels and can never catch up on all the new technology?  Not suprising when you consider the list of skills that Nik Peachey has identified as being part of the 'tool kit' of a 21st EFL teacher.

• As Peachey points out, most of these skills were actually not around five years ago, so any teacher who has been working for five years or more won't have had any exposure to them in their pre-service teacher training.  
• At METU.NCC, we do cover many of the issues in the CTE319 course, but I haven't done a survey of the TEFL programme graduates who are currently working as teachers to see if they have been able to apply any of the skills in day-to-day practice.
• However, if you are like me, then any skills you have developed have been as a result of individual initiative and curiousity. Those of us who have been teaching more than five years are fortunate in having  younger colleagues who are tolerant of us in the 'digital immigrant' generation, and help us become more tech-savvy.  In return, we can share our experience in traditional teaching, so that technology use and practical experience can be woven together for a richer educational experience.  
• Likewise, the Teacher Development Unit at METU.NCC has been keen on promoting a community of practice through this blog, workshops and more.  However, like any 'never ending story', it seems that every five years we will have to reinvent ourselves as teachers, which on the positive side of things means that our jobs will certainly never be boring. 

Worth doing the survey below just to get a flavour of the technological influences on teaching that have evolved over the last five years, and what you think are skills that should be in the 21st Century teacher's bag of tricks.


Teachers' digital skills tick list