For this activity I
interviewed an 11th 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.
The teacher I interviewed had no idea what NETS was, but after reading your post I think it is very possible that some of the NETS standards are in fact indirectly being used already. It is true that a lot of them seem like common sense ideas that would become part of a lesson when integrating technology whether you intend them to or not.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher also felt in some ways these were being used in her school, but not in every case. She believed that many teachers could really use help with implementing technology. Like you said many could benefit from professional development when it comes to integrating technology. Some teachers have not been to school in a long time and need proper training to really utilize technology.
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