Teaching,+Learning,+and+the+Curriculum

Return to ISTE TF-TL Standards

Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum
Chapter Three of __ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards__ covers teaching, learning and curriculum. This covers a broad spectrum of topics. The authors point out, "In an era when the needs of students are rapidly changing, schools are not providing digital-age learners with the types of environments that parallel the connectivity and social interaction patterns that they are accustomed to outside of school." (Williamson & Redish, 2009 p.57) This is the challenge presented by this standard. The description of the modern student who lives in a media rich world matches what I see daily in my own classroom. The chapter reinforced my belief that, "mastering core academic content as defined in the past is not sufficient to prepare students for meaningful participation in today's global economy." (Williamson and Redish, 2009 p.60).

I did develop a greater understanding of the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS*S) than I had previously. Reading through the examples and descriptions of the standards provided some insight into the critical skills students need. I had been aware of the NETS*S and the teacher standards (NETS*T), but had not developed a thorough understanding. These standards summarize basic technological skills necessary for students to survive and work in a digital world. These standards meshed almost exactly with what I had always believed were necessary skills for today's students, from digital citizenship to critical thinking, students today are challenged to do more with the powerful tools at their fingertips. This agreement with the NETS*S made it easier to implement the TF-TL Standards. This standard allows for creativity and development of resources and materials for incorporating the technology into lessons. Planning learning activities from my Action Research Project to individual units and supplemental activities for teachers and students were some of the most fulfilling activities I had during the course of this program. This learning must also address the new type of skills being developed by what Marc Prensky refers to as "Ditigal Natives." In his popular article on the subject, Prensky (2001) referring to video games and the high speed students use to react to their world states, "the many skills the new technologies have actually enhanced (e.g. parallel processing, graphics awareness and random access) -- which have profound implications for their learning -- are almost totally ignored by educators."

These are the areas I tried to address in my field based activities, to provide stimulating activities with multiple access points for students as they worked toward mastery of the content. This addresses the ISTE Standards as well as the NETS*S in order to provide the students an authentic learning experience. In spite of being a "Digital Immigrant" I find myself agreeing with my students when subjected to an old style staff development. I also enjoy a multimedia presentation more than a lecture or reading something I need to learn in a book alone.

Working with my fellow students and in some cases my fellow staff members on the implementation of these field based activities for this Standard provided me with a wealth of information, a new respect for how hard many of my colleagues are working to try to keep lessons stimulating for our students, and proved again how valuable collaboration can be. Sharing ideas and talking out plans allowed me to keep my attention focused on providing activities that would meet the standard while still keeping the interest levels higher than normal. My colleagues were able to make suggestions through discussion boards and wiki posts as well as the occasional email to help me out and I was able to offer my ideas to them.

As a lifelong learner, I have discovered the usefulness of sharing ideas with others and refining them based on input. I used to be a loner when it came to designing lessons, taking the entire responsibility on myself. Having partners to collaborate with this year has made my planning easier and my teaching less frantic. Learning that I can trust others to have what is best for my students in mind and to have ideas as good or better than my own has given me more desire to collaborate on future projects.

The most challenging section of this Standard for me was TF-III.D1, "Use methods and classroom management strategies for teaching technology concepts and skills in individual, small group, classroom, and/or lab settings." (Williamson & Redish, 2009 p.68) Keeping a lab full of students on the same skill for more than a few minutes is challenging because as was noted above, students live in an immediate reaction world and expect to master a concept and move on, not wait for someone who is slower to finish up.

The success of these new types of learning activities are with the students who try them. According to Pitler (2007, p.3) there are, "consistent findings that technology can be especially effective with at-risk and special needs students." This has been particularly true for me in my work with at-risk middle school students and English Language Learners. This is perhaps the Standard that incorporates the most fun and the hardest work in planning the activities and managing the resources needed to implement the activities.

References

Pitler, H.,Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007) //Using technology with classroom instruction that works//. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II: Do they really think differently? //On the Horizon (9)//6. MCB University Press.

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009) //ISTE's Technology facilitation and leadership standards.//Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.