The
teacher I interviewed is currently employed at a private high school that is
under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Metuchen. She presently teaches 11th
and 12th grade English classes on the College Prep, Honors,
and Advanced Placement levels.
When I
began the interview with a brief bit of background information on this
assignment being for a class on technology in the classroom, the teacher did
not appear to be surprised by the topic. Based on the information she has given
me, technology has been a strong aspect of education in this particular school
since she began working there about five years ago and has continued to
increase in its importance. When I
specifically asked her about the NETS-S and NETS-T, she seemed more surprised
that I knew that there were standards for technology than she was about being
asked about the standards themselves. She was very knowledgeable about the
standards, citing them as the latest area of focus for the entire school that
is being strongly pushed by the school’s new administration.
In
recent years, the whole school has been very focused on implementing the NETS-S
and NETS-T. The school has adopted the slogan “Educating for the 21st
Century” to reflect their new-found forward-thinking emphasis on technology.
This has been an ongoing process, beginning a year or so before she started
teaching at the school with the policy of all teachers being assigned a laptop
provided by the school. With the laptops, teachers became required to use
online grade-books that allowed students and their parents to view their grades
and attendance. In her years teaching at the school, she has witnessed the
introduction of online courses offered as electives, the introduction of the
web-based tool Moodle, students being
assigned laptops, and a change in curriculum to increase the amount of
Technology classes required for graduation.
Although she focused more on the
school’s overall emphasis on incorporating technology than how it is used in
her own classroom, she did mention that it was required for teachers to meet
both Common Core Standards and The National Educational Technology Standards
for Teachers and Students. Given that she teaches at a private school, I wasn’t
sure if the standards still applied so I was surprised to see how important
they were in this particular setting. The teacher stated that the Diocese wants
to ensure that their schools are aligned with the standards because it both
asserts their credibility as an academic institution and gives them a
competitive edge by using their focus on technology as a selling point to boost
enrollment.
As a future educator, I would focus
more on how students use technology to
reach the standards and less on how much technology is used in general. If the
whole purpose of the NETS-S is really to use technology as a tool for enhancing
students’ creativity, communication, and critical thinking skills, then they
should be discussed with those intentions in mind.
I am really shocked your teacher actually knew about the technology standards. On the other hand, maybe it has something to do with it being a private high school. I also attended a private high school and we used Moodle as well. We also had laptop carts and I would not be surprised if they have upgraded to iPads by now. I completely agree that the importance should be placed on "how" students use technology. In my own blog posts I have written that technology should be a tool to boost student learning. As far as your commenting situation goes, I did not receive any comments on my blog. I also just commented on Jessica's blog and mine was the first comment. There is definitely a glitch occurring for you.
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ReplyDeleteI think you make a great point about focusing on how students use technology as opposed to how much technology is used. I’ve had teachers who have used technology in the classroom just for the sake of using technology; there was no useful purpose behind it and I did not gain anything from it. Like Alex mentioned, I am very surprised that your teacher was familiar with the standards and I wonder if it does have anything to do with the fact that it is a private school. What I also find interesting is that, even though my teacher isn’t familiar with the standards, he is being trained for something similar to the online grade book you mentioned. I’m glad they are implementing ways to keep the parents involved and aware of their children’s education.
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