In class, we discussed globalization, particularly how the “world is flat” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat) and the different changes that are happening to the global economy, and how it affects the American education system. In particular, the rapid incline of China and India as forefronts in educating their citizens has put particular pressure on the United States to compete by using technology to advance the knowledge that they instruct their students.
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) is the premier organization of educators and education administrators aimed at improving technology in K-12 education. The ISTE have made six principles in which they have formed standards for students to follow including: 1.Creativity and Innovation, 2. Communication and Collaboration, 3. Research and Information Fluency, 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, 5. Digital Citizenship, 6. Technology Operations and Concepts. The ISTE has transformed classroom learning by giving instructors guidelines to follow when incorporating technology into classrooms. For example, the ISTE lists Creativity and Innovation first, placing emphasis that students learn how to use technology to expand and develop creativity in the classroom. The NETS are so crucial to use as a planning springboard because it keeps teachers focused on the importance of the lesson and not to get so caught up with the technological aspect. Moreover, when teachers are given guidelines to follow their lessons will be more robust with guidelines set forth by ISTE.
While ISTE has made six different guidelines for teachers to follow, Part Three, Research and Information Fluency, is most important because it explains guidelines for students to gather, evaluate, and use information effectively. The first section of Part Three states “plan strategies to guide inquiry”. This is important because students must understand how to show the students how to obtain information and data, and how to plan their time spent finding information accordingly. In addition, this section details the importance of student to ethically find information on the internet and use it properly. Another important part of this section in the ISTE standards, is to “select information sources..based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.” With so much technology and with the industry expanding at a rapid rate, its important to for teachers and students to understand what tools to use as not to create more work for themselves. Most importantly, students should have a grasp of how to use technology to process results and how to manipulate data.
The ISTE are important and useful because they show instructors how to integrate technology into their classroom and use it effectively. For more information see: http://techfusion310.wikispaces.com/file/view/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdf .