Universidad Latina de Panam Graduate studies Eric Contreras ID: 8-801-1241

Important Elements for Teachers to Teach in a Participatory Digital World for Achieving Success

Teaching in a participatory digital world is very important in this century because the younger generations are embracing technology more and more, and teachers should know how to integrate these technologies to their classrooms to make the class more interesting and attractive to young people. Furthermore, new technologies such as social networking, cloud-based computing, and mobile technologies are changing the way of people to learn, work and play. In order to achieve success in a participatory digital world, teachers should plan out engaging, meaningful, and authentic work, and technology enhanced learning experiences , involve collaboration and individual reflection on learning outside school, and learn about new technologies continuously.

Teachers should plan out engaging, meaningful, and authentic work, and technology enhanced learning experiences. Now students need to develop skills such as questionposing, networking, assessing and criticizing media and information, coming up with new ideas to contribute to the knowledge and work in collaboratively. So, I agree with the author because I have had students that they know how to look for information on the web, but they do not analyze the information that they require for research papers because they copy and paste the same information that they found on the web. Therefore, teachers should have knowledge about how to select information on the web carefully and teach their students how to analyze the information that they find on the web by scanning and skimming the text and summarizing it with their own words. According to research, when teachers and students work collaboratively, it enhances the creation of new ideas. Therefore, students can be engaged if they have authentic and inquiry-based assignments when they explore topics by themselves, use computers if teachers include tasks based on active learning. However, I think that public schools in Panama should have more adequate English labs and computer labs in order to integrate technology and have more opportunities to activate learning in our students because if we do not have these facilities, then teachers will not able to provide students great

Universidad Latina de Panam Graduate studies Eric Contreras ID: 8-801-1241

activities by involving technology. On the other hand, reflecting on learning is also vital for the classroom, and I do it with my students by asking questions such as how do you feel in the classroom? Did you learn anything in this lesson or English course? Did you like my methodology? What suggestions do you have for improving the English course? What activities would you like to have in your English class? What you did not like about the English course? Then I collect all the papers about their opinion on the English course, and I analyze them. Teachers should involve collaboration and individual reflection outside their students schooling. If our students participate in active or interactive learning experiences online and take control of their own learning on any subject, they will learn more. I agree with the author partially because I have been in one online course which was great, for I learned many things about the process of translation. However, I didnt feel so clear in some points of translating. So, I believe that the best form of learning is by combining in-person classes and online classes because I consider that they are more productive and interactive, and students have access to online simulations, digital experiments and data collection sites, online reflection tools, and self-assessment strategies on the net depending on the online platform that the teacher selects. Therefore, students can collaborate with other students and the teacher and develop higher-order critical thinking skills. On the other hand, this could be possible if all our students from public school have a laptop or a computer with connection to the Internet in order to participate in social learning from the social network by exchanging, sharing and exploring new ideas, knowledge and experiences. Besides, teachers need to create their own learning communities and have access to unfiltered and unrestricted learning communities and resources so that schools must administer their own network for students, teachers and principals can use the Internet critically and ethically.

Teachers should learn about technology continuously to be able to teach their students on how to use information from the net wisely and critically. Teachers require continuous professional support from computer trainers. I believe that public school teachers need more training about using computers because some of them are fearful of

Universidad Latina de Panam Graduate studies Eric Contreras ID: 8-801-1241

them. I think that the project called Entre Pares is a good initiative from the Ministry of Education for training teachers on how to use the basic computer programs for their tasks in the classroom because teachers help each other and share their knowledge about computers and at the end they do a project about one topic on their subjects. However, when I was in that seminar, I realized about the gap among teachers on their knowledge about computers. So, I recommend to the Ministry of Education of Panama to have permanent training for public school teachers, so that they cannot forget all their knowledge acquired in the seminar and keep them updated with the use of technology in their classrooms. I eulogize the decision of the Ministry of Education of Panama of selling the laptops for a reasonable price to teachers, and I recommend to the Ministry of Education to provide teachers with projectors to make teachers lessons more interactive, colorful and interesting for our students.

Finally, teachers in the 21st century face a lot of challenges. One of them is learning how to use computer programs, internet and mobile devices. I believe that teachers of this century must blend in-person classes and online lessons to be more successful in their teaching by involving participation of their students in a digital world to make classes more active, interactive, colorful and interesting for our students. Furthermore, teachers should encourage their students in the process of selecting and analyzing critically the information that they get on the web by teaching them techniques and strategies to read and think critically in order to have a better understanding, develop their skills and avoid copy and paste when they write research papers on any subject. Also, I recommend to the Ministry of Education of Panama to invest more money in training public school teachers on the use of the computer programs continuously.