NETS

REFLECTION:

In 1995 President Clinton confronted the nation’s parents, teachers, government, community, and business leaders to work together to ensure that all children in America are technologically literate by the 21st century. He established the four pillars of his technology literacy agenda:

1. Connect every school and classroom in America to the information superhighway
2. Provide access to modern computers for all teachers and students
3. Develop effective and engaging software and on-line learning resources as an integral part of the school curriculum
4. Provide all teachers with the training and support they need to help students learn using computers and the information superhighway.

The vision that President Clinton had in mind was very ambitious and it was a grand scale project. Twelve years have gone by since his speech and today many school districts throughout the United States have been slowly infusing technology into their curriculum, but no yet up to the standards he envisioned.

Today we have in place the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). According to the Education World website the NETS project will work to define standards for students. The project will integrate curriculum technology, technology support, and standards for student assessment and evaluation of the use of technology. The technology foundation standards for students are divided into six broad categories. Standards within each category are to be introduced, reinforced, and mastered by students. These categories provide a framework for linking performance indicators within the Profiles of Technology Literate Students to the standards. Teachers can use these standards and profiles as guidelines for planning technology-based activities in which students achieve success in learning, communication, and life skills. (iste)

While I believe that the current technology standards we have in place at this moment are a great source of guidance to school districts, I feel compelled to say that many school districts are still not complying with them. One of the problems I see with many school districts is that they lack the resources to bring their technology up to speed. Another factor is that teachers are not properly trained or prepared to infuse technology in their core classes. In fact, in order for teachers to infuse technology in their content area they need to learn a whole set of new skills. This takes time and money. Many teachers who have been teaching in the traditional setting do not necessarily embrace technology because they are set in their ways and are afraid of changes. On the other hand, teachers who want to infuse technology in their curriculum cannot because some schools have very limited resources.

As Grabe and Grabe indicate (p.30) “Classroom activities have remained fairly similar in most schools because of limited resources and limited awareness of alternative methods. As technology in classrooms offers new opportunities and a growing dialogue among educators creates greater awareness of how technology can be applied, teachers who have been frustrated with traditional approaches have the motivation and now the opportunity to change. In contrast, those who are satisfied with traditional methods see no reason to change. So improving access to technology will be the impetus for some teachers to alter their classroom activities, but others will continue doing what they have always done.”

Do my students meet the NETS for their grade level? I am not sure about this. It will be unfair for me to say they do. From my point of view, we do not have adequate technology to teach my students. What I teach it is not a core subject. It is an elective. Only one year is required. Therefore, the administration will not go out of their way to spend a lot money when they might need that money somewhere else. A language lab will be very expensive for our department to have. We need significant changes, but these changes are going to be slow. It all comes down to money, higher taxes, approvals etc. By the time teachers have learned new skills, these skills will be obsolete because new technology is emerging every day.

Resources
www.education-world.com
www.ed.go/updates/PresEDPlan/part11.html