I had an interesting conversation with some teachers about technology skills for the 21st century. Many years ago in the last century (the mid 1980s), when personal computers were emerging into the schools, we had similar discussions and made up lists of skills we thought would take our students into the future. Looking back at some of these lists, I can see that although we were well-intentioned, the technology continues to change and some of knowledge (e.g., how a floppy disk worked) and skills (MS-DOS commands) we thought were important are now obsolete. What we thought was a high-end use of technology (e.g., word processing or spreadsheets) is now standard. And the Internet didn’t even exist then (at least not in the sense that virtually everyone had access to it).
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has a sets of technology standards that go beyond specific applications. Before we start thinking “just what we need, another set of standards when we can’t even get to everything in science,” look at the headings for the student standards:
- Creativity and Innovation
- Communication and Collaboration
- Research and Information Fluency
- Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
- Digital Citizenship
Many of descriptions and performance indicators for these might already be incorporated in our science classes, and they’re independent of specific software and applications. ISTE also has sets of standards with performance indicators for teachers and administrators that would be helpful in designing professional development programs. They’re worth a look.
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2 Comments
Great post, the integration of technology is the focal point of instruction these days and will be for a long time. Standards are the minimum we should be achieving, not the maximum. Educators should take students beyond the minimum.
Thanks,
TIC-Technology In Class Blog
I was asked to put together an equipment and supply list to support the start of our 6-8 science curriculum in a new charter school. Can anyone tell me if there is a resource that specifies a list of basic things to start with to equipment classrooms for expedentiary learning. At this point we do not even have computers for research. We have very little money so I want to make sure it is spent wisely and that we have a few basic necessities for the Fall. Thanks for your suggestions.