Standard
three of the ISTE-NETS for teachers explains that teachers should exhibit
knowledge, skills, and work processes that model an innovative professional in
a global and digital society. In other words, educators need to use
different technological systems, and communicate effectively with students,
peers, and parents. They also need
to delve into their subject matter while utilizing current and emerging digital
tools such as credible teaching websites.
This standard also states that
teachers need to collaborate with students, peers, parents and the community to
support student success and innovation. A hindrance for
some teachers to comply with this standard is first gauge the digital access
and fluency of students, parents, peers, and the community.
One course of action for these
teachers to take is that during in-service days, all gathered teachers should talk
about and explore their technological modes of communication. At the least, ensure that all colleagues
use the school’s email. If there’s
a board or blog, suggest that others to start using it. I used to regularly communicate with
colleagues, and continually converse with department colleagues so at the
minimum, the history department had a consistent way to communicate with
teachers, students, and parents.
One way for teachers to assess students’
technological fluency is ask colleagues which technologies they utilize in their
classes. Also, many schools have
websites where teachers are expected to post current information such as
projects and grades. School
websites should be user friendly since a lot of the school’s information is
public. This is a great way to
expose the community to different levels of technology.
Educators can assess parents’
digital savvy during open house by simply asking parents their preferred method
of communication. A good way to
gauge ongoing accessibility and fluency is to revisit this discussion during
parent conferences. Teachers
should have a variety of technologies with which to communicate. I used to regularly communicate with
parents via simple technology like telephone and email. There is an inevitable hindrance with a
teacher utilizing new technologies:
Money. If schools and
families simply don’t have access to the latest and greatest technology, teachers
and parents should agree on a common way to communicate.
If student projects required more
advanced technology that the school owned, it was my responsibility that there
was computer time for students. In
all the schools I taught, I usually had two computers in my room. The computer
labs would have about 20 computers.
Using the computer lab was the most efficient way to work on more
involved projects that exposed students to different technologies. It was resourceful to have help from
the librarian, and to allow the all students to have their own computer. The hindrance for any school is
cost. At-risk communities and
schools would find it more difficult to implement more advanced technology due
costs such software licenses and hardware.
This ISTE-NETS standard also encourages
teachers to be able to transfer knowledge between technology systems. Some schools may only work with
Microsoft while many personal computers work on Macintosh. Students need to know how to translate any
familiar language for things like menus and palettes in the event they work
between different systems.
Teachers should glean if this will be an issue before starting a
project, so that they could prepare students with tips or guides. This part of the standard is important because this happens
all the time for many people, not just those in academia. Many businesses have systems that use
jargon that is different than many common personal computers. Learning and teaching about common
technological terms would be beneficial.
This standard supports ongoing
technology classes for teachers.
The more educators use technology, the richer their learning and
teaching will be.
