The National Technology Standards for teachers and students are detailed and far reaching. Obviously, the authors of both documents made a good faith effort to address the concerns of how to properly prepare students to successfully function in a digital world. In regards to the student directives, the emphasis on creativity, communication, collaboration and digital citizenship are laudable goals to be sure. However, I was struck by the apparent reliance to use digital media and environments to develop cultural understanding and facilitate engagement with other cultures. It seems to me that before we allow digital technology to be our student’s conduit to interaction with members of other cultures, we as educators should first perform due diligence and assess whether or not our students are up to that challenge. The tendency for individuals within a given culture is to believe that the way their culture operates is correct and anything contrary to that is incorrect is a pervasive one. If these types of ethnocentric views are not dealt with prior to a student’s digital engagement with another culture, their subsequent communication may prove confusing and unproductive.
Likewise, upon reviewing the teacher directives of designing and developing digital-age learning experiences to facilitate and inspire student creativity, I couldn’t help but view this as another case of one size does not fit all. My field experiences have afforded me the opportunity to see up close how districts, schools and classrooms are not all created equal. Each has varying curriculums, levels of funding, and student body challenges. It is somewhat incredulous to require teachers to design learning experiences that incorporate digital tools that their students have no access to due to budgetary constraints.
At a basic level I believe the likelihood that I and others will be able to successfully operate within the guidelines of these standards as practicing educators will greatly depend on resources at our disposal, time to employ these standards, and the capabilities of the students we will be working with.
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I don't read the standards as saying that cultural understanding should be achieved primarily via technology, but that technology should be used, among other things, as a tool for building cultural understanding. That is, teachers shouldn't rely on technology to develop cultural understanding, but one of the uses that students are exposed to should be learning about and appreciating other cultures. I absolutely agree that students need to be taught proper norms and etiquette and sensitivity etc. prior to engaging other cultures -- that is as true of using new technologies as the medium as it is going on a field trip.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on the disparity between districts is quite correct, and your point is well made that it would be impossible to implement the standards without the necessary resources.
jd
Also you might be interested in ISTE's Essential Conditions -- "necessary conditions to effectively leverage technology for learning."
ReplyDeletejd