The amount of technology that is available to our teachers and students can be overwhelming at times. Just finding a place to start, or a resource to help you begin can be very difficult.
Mary Beth Hertz in her blog post entitled, “
Getting Started with Technology Integration in Your Classroom” says the
National Educational Technology Standards are “a great framework for planning lessons and projects that combine technology literacy with academic standards and critical thinking skills.” The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) were created by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and can be found on the ISTE website. ISTE has created a set of standards for students (2007), teachers (2008), and administrators (2009). The ISTE website indicates that the standards “have served as a roadmap since 1998 for improved learning and teaching.” The standards are just one way that ISTE has been helping teachers implement technology into the classroom in order to enhance student learning. They are a very organized and detailed set of standards to assist educators in the classroom.
bm.iphone, “iPad accessory” April 10, 2010 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution
ISTE is a legitimate professional growth opportunity. ISTE offers a variety of resources to assist the educator including an online magazine, webinars, newsletters, and a very large annual conference and exposition. I know of many educators who attended this year’s annual conference in Denver and were quite impressed with the amount of connecting, sharing, collaborating, and learning that took place during the conference. It appears to me that the annual ISTE conference is one of the premier technology conferences available to educators.
Joining ISTE is as simple as going online, submitting a membership application, or calling on the phone. In another blog post entitled "
Is ISTE Still Relevant for Young Educators?", Mary Beth Hertz talks about some of the value of being a member of ISTE, whether you are a young educator or a "proven veteran." The benefits from ISTE can be seen by all teachers.
It will be interesting to see if districts get on board with these standards. It only makes sense to me that if districts are paying out the big bucks for technology in the classrooms that they hold staff to a certain standard of actually implementing the technology within their classroom. I'm wondering at what point students will be assessed on their technology skills as they are such a necessary element of being a productive member of our society.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like they provide a lot of resources to help teachers get technology in the classroom. I know my mom's school is working on doing that. They decided to focus on SMARTboard and an online grade book this year. There were training sessions as a part of their pre-year meetings. I know my mom has always been a little shy using technology, but now that they are providing different seminars for things she is slowly adding it into her lesson planning.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to share some of the resources I've clean from this class with her.
It is good to hear that the conference is actually worth the trip and full of great experences. As I looked through the website I also thought the information was helpfull without being a memeber. They provided many resources for non memebers that were helpful and interesting. It is also great to have a group that is here for the benifit of the students and the advadment of technology!
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