Post #1 - NETs

Although I was not able to make it to class last week, I was able to read over the handouts posted on the Wiki Spaces page. The first thing I noticed was the cast difference in the standards between 2007, 2008, and 2009. A year seems like a small amount of time in the long run, but when it comes to technology a year can seem like a century. Each set of standards was given to a different set of people; students, teachers, and administration.

One of the questions posed to us was, “If you were to rank or re-rank the NETS for students, how would you rank them and why? Which would be the most important and why?” In my opinion I would rank Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making as my most important standard. This is because these three skills are not only important and useful in the area of technology, but they are great tools to use in everyday life. These skills are difficult to grasp and are constantly growing within a person. The next student standard I would rank is Communication and Collaboration. The most significant concept of this standard for me is, “…to support individual learning and contribute to learning of others.” Students are always able to gain more information from one another and encouraging that is a huge part of being a great teacher. The next standard on my list is, Creativity and Innovation. This standard expresses how important it is for students to not only use their existing knowledge in the classroom when it comes to technology, but it encourages the students to also generate new concepts and ideas. These new concepts and ideas and be incorporated into the Communication and Collaboration standard where the students can teach other what they have learned. The fourth standard for my list is, Research and Information Fluency. Since these are technology-based standards, students will not be able to gain a true appreciation for learning if they are not ‘fluent’ in technology concepts and lingo. I believe that the last two standards listed, Digital Citizenship and Technology Operations and Concepts are in the correct order, and therefore I would not change them in my rank of the standards.

Another question that was brought to our attention was, “Why are the NETs important to use as a planning springboard?” The reason that these NETs are important to use as a planning springboard is because they are the standards of teaching technology in the classroom. They guide the administration to inspire and help out the teachers who need to guide and inspire the students who in turn guide and inspire themselves in the classroom. Each concept provided in the NETs standards is thoroughly explained so as the teacher is able to plan a lesson to teach the students. These standards allow lessons to be taught and lesson plans to be made in a way that is productive in teaching and learning.