ISTE Standards Reflection

The National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS•S) is a guideline for teachers on how should technology be implemented in the classroom to improve learning experience of students. It stated that teachers should facilitate and inspire student learning, design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments, model digital-age work and learning, and promote and model digital responsibility. Other than using technology to enhance student learning, the NETS•S also suggested teachers to engage in professional growth and improve their profession as a teacher (these are from Colin Quinton’s blog).

I agree with what the standards have stated; however, in reality, not all teachers are able to carry out the NETS•S in the classroom due to lack of technology resources and administration and parent support. With the budget cut in education these couple years, it’s making the situation even worse in some school districts. I am very fortunate that there is a computer lab at the elementary school that I am working at, and all the classes have a chance to use the lab at least once a week. My K-1 class gets to try different computer software which helps them on phonics and reading each week. Since technology is so widely use nowadays, I believe it is good for the children to have exposure to computer in a young age. Although there are enough technology resources at the school, the technology support is very limited. There is only 1 technology support staff for the entire school district. Therefore, when there is a problem with the computer during class, it is pretty much down to the teacher/aides to figure out what is wrong. And most of the time this means teaching the lesson without the use of technology.

Teachers, I believe, should also have a positive attitude on acquiring knowledge of new technology. Many teachers use email as a method to communicate with parents, and some even set up classroom blogs. In my old school, we have class website set up for the teachers to upload homework log, newsletter and photos. At the beginning of the school year, there was a workshop on how to manage the website all of the teacher assistants. One first grade teachers actually came on her own time and joined us in the training session. I was impressed by her eager-to-learn attitude.

As I am working toward becoming a classroom teacher, I would like to try my best to follow the National Education Technology Standards for Students. My hope is to promote students’ interest in technology by modeling the use of different technology in the classroom. I would like to let the students know that technology is a very useful tool in finding information; however, they need to use it responsibly.