Interactivity #5: NETS/ISTE Interview

Revised spreadsheet with NETS standards

For this activity I interviewed an 11^th grade Social Studies teacher, named “Mrs. A”, within the Paramus school district. Paramus can be considered an affluent area, with many families living in the middle/upper-middle class. The district is also well known for public education, a few being National Blue Ribbon schools. The Social Studies program, in the school of the teacher I interviewed, there is an emphasis on technology in the classroom. 

Before our interview, I asked her what she knew about NETS and their implementation in the Paramus School district. In addition to core curricular standards, these standards are referred to as National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). After telling her about our assignment I asked her about integrating technology and the standards. She told me she has heard of them, but did not have much experience with them. I provided her with the standards and asked her about the feelings she had about them. I printed out NETS/ISTE for Students 2007 and showed her the Appendix in Domine's book, which provides some standards and a good way to reference them during the interview. 

The teacher, Mrs. A, was not familiar with the exact standards listed in the NETS documents I provided her with. She did not know about NETS being applied for students in her district, and was not sure if her colleagues have been implementing them in their lessons. Mrs. A stated, “In our district there is a push for integrating technology into the curriculum, but it is not a requirement”. She also went on to note how there is an emphasis on the continuous evolvement of technology and education in modern times. To her understanding, Mrs. A feels NETS is being adopted in her school district, indirectly, because to her knowledge she is not sure which of her coworkers are aware of them. She thinks it is a good idea to have professional development so more teachers can be aware of these standards, and learn how to implement them correctly. However, she does not feel that funding for technology in the district is objectionable; there are already high-tech computer labs, some Smart Boards, and other technological devices. Mrs. A says that these standards could be applied easily.

When looking at the NETS and ISTE, I asked her how she felt about them being adopted in her district. She told me she thought they were great and she would reference them in the future. I was not surprised about her experience with NETS or the fact that she believed they were being implied indirectly. A lot of the NETS/ISTE standards seem like they could be “common sense” in a modern day classroom. As a future teacher, I think I will keep these documents to cite as a teacher, I might share them with my coworkers as something we can work on implementing together. I feel like these standards are a good idea and that teachers should always stay ahead with the current advancement of technology.