The teacher I
interviewed is a 9th grade English teacher in the Hackensack School
District. Although her school is considered to be public, it is also a magnet
school for kids who are particularly talented in the Arts. In order to get into
this school, the students need to apply, be tested on their abilities and then
accepted or rejected, depending on their scores. Hackensack is part of Bergen
County and therefore the province that I am particularly studying in this
interactivity is Bergen.
Based on the responses
to the eight survey questions, I noticed that the teacher I interviewed was
extremely knowledgeable about NETS. According to her, technology standards have
been implemented in the Hackensack School District for a few years already
and NETS is one of those initiatives that the school district reinforces. In
order to increase the students’ technological awareness and media literacy, her
school district has posted the National Educational Technology Standards for
teachers and for students on teachers’ online curriculums. In addition, every
teacher is evaluated on their observations according to those standards. In
order to increase the use of these new technology standards, her district also
includes training as part of professional development and teacher workshops.
I was extremely surprised
at my interviewee’s responses because I did not expect this teacher to be so
familiar with NETS. As a matter of fact, she was surprised about the questions I
was asking her. My interviewee explained to me that NETS are standards that all
teachers in her school are extremely familiar with and that it is natural for
her to include them in her lessons. Also, I did not think that this school
district worried so much about their students’ technological awareness. In
fact, what surprised me the most was the fact that in order to help the
teachers implement NETS, this particular school’s English Department bought 40 IPads
that were to be used within regular lessons. Moreover, according to my
interviewee, most English classrooms have Smartboards that teachers use to make the lesson more interactive.
As a future educator, I
would definitely implement NETS in my own classroom. Truly, NETS can enhance
any lesson because the use of technology facilitates and maximizes content
learning. Furthermore, if the teacher uses NETS for Students, she/he is
conscious of using some of those standards within his/her lesson and in that
way, there is a higher possibility of technology being part of the lesson. Also, as a future educator,
I would speak to my colleagues about the many advantages that NETS has to
offer. Lastly, I would also seek technological help from more knowledgeable
faculty about different and more innovative ways of using NETS in my own
classroom.
This is certainly an ideal case of technology being authentically & thoroughly implemented in a public school. In my area,where I conducted my interview for this activity,most public schools unfortunately are not integrating technology nearly as effectively as this school. The ESL teacher who I interviewed was not aware that National Standards for technology use even existed. In my former high school, the primary examples of modern technology available to students are the limited computers in the media center/library and the scientific calculators that are lent to students who are enrolled in Advanced math courses. I was intrigued as I read how this school has tremendously invested in high-tech resources such as IPads & Smart-boards! If these devices are managed appropriately for the purpose of education, I believe that they may indeed enhance the students' learning experience.
ReplyDelete