Technology Standards and 21st Century Learning Project

Task 1

The demands on teachers, districts, and schools laid out in two tech standards and the rainbow-colored frameworks of 21st Century Skills are extensive and border on intimidating. To paraphrase the old biblical proverb, if this much will be expected, then much will need to be provided. Including…

Funding: Consider the degree of investment implied in the first six words of standard 8.1: “All students will use digital tools.” Buying, maintaining, and updating sufficient networked computers, software, and external devices is hugely expensive.

Support: Once you drop the cash for tech goods, you need to spend yet more money to support this investment. For example, schools will need an IT person on staff to deal with repairs, implement updates, and make smart, scalable purchases. In the category of information support, a school library staff that knows about 21st century search and retrieval strategies and the best new media sources to use is essential.

Training: Although teachers will be expected to have some degree of technological literacy at hiring time, they will need to become expert users and understand how to exploit the pedagogical power of the tech at their disposal. The teachers will need the drive to stay current and the schools will need to provide the workshops and continuing ed. to help them do so.

Parental involvement: Teachers can’t be experts in all the extraordinary practical applications of technology. If you are lucky enough to teach in a community that has tech experts (engineers, electronic journalists, music studio professionals, etc.), getting them in to school to share their expertise would fill those gaps and help students see how technology is put to use in the real world in creative ways.

Community help: The Life and Career Skills and 21st Century Interdisciplinary Themes seem ideally handled through internships and work in the community. An after-school internship at a chocolate chip cookie start-up or volunteer work on a river pollution study would do more to immerse kids in entrepreneurial, environmental, and career skills than classes alone ever could.

I will be looking for evidence of this sort of support from schools in which I might teach.

As far as the implications for my own teaching, these standards’ emphasis on problem solving and interdisciplinary work will require collaboration among staff in different subject areas. There will need to be a willingness to team-teach and to come up with suitable projects that enable students to demonstrate mastery over technological processes and core subject areas while encouraging creativity and collaboration. (Phew! Tall order). In my subject (English), the technology I’m learning about (blogging, blackboards, filesharing, personal e-journals, etc.) is wowing me. I think if it is used right it holds great promise to make learning “usually fun but sometimes hard work.”

Task 2

NJ Tech Standards

Standard 8.2 Technology, Education, Engineering, and Design
8.2
“All students will develop an understanding of the nature and impact of technology, engineering, technological design, and the designed world, as they relate to the individual, global society, and the environment.”
Strand C. Technological Citizenship, Ethics, and Society
CPI
8.2.12.C.3
“Evaluate the positive and negative impacts in a design by providing a digital overview of a chosen product and suggest potential modifications to address the negative impacts.”

As an English project I thought it would be interesting to examine--from many different perspectives--the implications of the rise of e-books.

Students would pick a book that was available electronically and in print and read alternate chapters in each format to experience the strengths and limitations of each. They could discuss their findings on a virtual board ("Hey, you can drop a book and it doesn't break." "Yeah, but you can fit a hundred books on an e-reader." "OK, but what about if you want to loan a book to a friend? Can you do that with an e-book?" "Is it fair for Amazon to limit sharing of e-book files?" "The Kindle can read a book OUT LOUD!" "Do you really want to read a Kindle in bed? It's not even backlit! Duh!" etc.)

They would also be required to do online research into the competing models of e-book readers on the market, examining questions such as: How are the capabilities and pricing of e-readers different and how do the differences reflect the strategic vision of their companies? (e.g., The Kindle is a b&w dedicated reading device which is priced less than the full-color Apple i-pad. Why did Jeff Bezos go this way and Steve Jobs that? Are there any indications either is changing because of the competition? Why are publishers so upset at the $9.99 price Amazon wants to impose on Kindle editions?)

By asking students to design the hypothetically perfect e-reader, they would get to think about design issues and be asked to justify their choices.

They could also investigate big-picture issues, such as: How are e-books likely to affect the publishing industry if they don't need to pay to print, ship, and warehouse books but cannot charge consumers as much? Do you think e-books will be good for booksellers? libraries? authors? society? you?