SETDA, ISTE, and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills released a document last night called Maximizing the impact: The pivotal role of technology in a 21st century education system.
Take this survey and see how you’re doing on the ‘Guiding Questions for Stakeholders.’ Due date = November 14. I’ll publish the results on November 16.
A few questions came to mind while taking this survey. I realize the questions are taken directly from the Maximizing the Impact publication, but anyhoowie:
On question 1 – what is “state of the art” technology? (Hard to answer a definitional question which uses subjective terminology).
Question 4 – “Are schools ensuring that students are mastering rigorous technology skills, such as ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards for Students?”
Which ones? the refresh standards?
Out of 24 specific items in the new NETS refresh, only 4 depend on actual technology. The other 20 simply add the word “digital” or “with technology” to the end of the sentence, which to me, does not qualify them as rigorous technology standards.
Please understand I appreciate what ISTE has done to put more “why” into technology than “what” – but I just don’t think the question words well on the survey.
Last Question – “Do schools allow, encourage and teach students to use popular personal technologies, such as cell phones, MP3 players and other portable digital devices, as learning tools in school and elsewhere?
Back to the “what” of technology. I have a feeling I know where the question is going, but it seems so odd to be so technology device specific. Do cell phones need to be leveraged as a learning device? (Do students do this independent of our organization’s choice to do or not do this?)