Technology Standards for Teachers and Students: Are These Standards Within Reach or Beyond What We Could Achieve?

As I reflected on my posting regarding the "20 Skills Every Educator Should Possess", I had broken down the skills into three different categories: basic (ones that yes, every educator should have), intermediate (skills that most educators should have), and advanced (skills that might only pertain to instructors at the high school or university levels). I talked about how the skills a teacher should have should be relevant to the subject and grade level one teaches and should also take into account the number of technological resources an educator has available. For example, PDAs were put into the "advanced" category, and I said that I didn't feel it was necessary for ALL teachers at ALL levels to have knowledge of how to use PDAs in the classroom, simply because it's likely that not ALL school districts at the elementary and middle school level would have access to this technology. I personally think that this technological tool would have a more likely chance of being used in a high school, college, or university, which would mean teachers at these levels would need to have such skills in using PDAs for instructional purposes. Of course, it wouldn't hurt any educator to possess all 20 of the skills mentioned in the article, but it does not seem that it should be mandatory.

In tying the 20 skills to the Technology Standards for Teachers and Students developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), I think that indeed, the standards are within reach of being accomplished. The standards do not specifically state what technological equipment or tools must be used to meet the different standards, rather they allow for different tools to be used – tools that are at the school district’s and the teacher’s discretion to use and ones in which the school district has obtained. My personal belief is that as long as a school district has, as one of its pillars of education, technology education for its students, that it will provide a variety of technological tools and resources for student and teacher use. If technology is emphasized in the curriculum and teachers are required to use it, then of course the technology standards will be met. Perhaps not all of the standards will be met but a good portion at the very least. Even if teachers are not required to use technology but are encouraged to use it, then I do see the standards on their way to being met.

At a minimum, students would learn social, ethical, and legal issues when it comes to using technology if for example they were conducting research for a research paper in their language arts class. I would hope that students would first be taught to cite the web page from which their information is coming and also that they would have the knowledge to evaluate a website for credibility and not just start jotting down information from any website. Just within these two tasks alone, students and teachers would have already met three of the standards: 1) using a technology-based productivity tool to complete an assignment, 2) understanding the social, legal, and ethical issues when using technology, namely, the Internet, and 3) being exposed to a learning experience and immersed in a learning environment where the use of technology is the main tool to accomplish a research-oriented task and hence, using technology as a research tool. This is only one miniscule example of the way in which the technology standards can be achieved by both teachers and students. Surely, there are a myriad of other ways to meet the standards as there are a plethora of technological tools available. Very important is the fact that it is not necessary for a school to have ALL of the latest and greatest technology-based tools to meet the standards. Teachers can use their creativity to find ways of meeting the technology standards using the tools and resources their school has available.

It is my belief that if a school district does not emphasize or even recognize technology as an important part of a child’s education and the overall school district’s curriculum, that unfortunately, the technology standards will be far beyond reach, unless the teacher herself is an advocate of using technology and of her own volition will use and implement it in the classroom, given she has the necessary tools and resources. However, if a school does not even have the required tools and/or resources to accomplish the technology-based tasks, then it is doubtful that the technology standards will be able to be achieved.

All in all, with the lightning-fast advancements in technology and the ever-so-rapid ways of daily life in today’s society, I feel that it would be in the best of interest of every school district to provide its educational community with at least some technological tools and resources. Surely, at least some of the technology standards would be achieved by educators and students if these implementations were in place and teachers took advantage of the available equipment. After all, some is better than none.