NETS Session

[Live blogged, editorial comments in italics]

In 1998, they were thinking, what do kids need to be able to do with technology?  It was, I guess, a good questions at that time.  Today it’s, “what do kids need to know to be able to learn today and live productively?”  Yes! Yes! Yes!

Learning is taking a much higher profile.  Interestingly, this was an impression that I had from EduBloggerCon.  It was about learning and facilitating learning.  One of the things that pushed them was the 8th grade assessment from No Child Left Behind.  What do we want to be tested — what button to press, or how to use technology to accomplish goals.  

NETS Standards:

  • Creativity & Innovation
  • Communication & Collaboration
  • Research & Information Fluency
  • Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decisions-Making
  • Digital Citizenship
  • Technology Operations & Concepts

Feedback from all 50 states and 22 other countries when into the building of the standards. At this point this seems to be a celebration, which is exactly what they said it was.

The number one thing that we heard from feedback was globalization, evidenced partly by the amount of feedback from outside the U.S.  They are national standards, but with so much feedback from outside, they will be a starting place for many other countries.

One of the challenges now will come to the state education departments who mush figure out how to fold these standards not only in their state technology standards, but also into other subject and skill standards.  It is about learning, not just tech.

“Rather than learning the technology, we’re using technology to learn.” 

This was a quote from Paul, a fifth grade teacher who was involved in developing the NETS.  If someone knows his last name, please comment it in here. That says a lot!  He also urged teachers who integrate the standards, they must share it with the world.

I had some conversations with people at my table before the session started about the NETS.  Some interesting statements that came out of it were:

  • NETS are visionary, but perhaps what’s most important about them is that they will force visionary thinking.
  • We have to learn to have vision.  We also have to teach our children how to make vision.

http://davidwarlick.com/images/nets_session-20070625-090927.jpg

5 thoughts on “NETS Session”

  1. Might I refer you and your readers to my extensive interview with Don Knezek about the NETS?

    Refreshing the ISTE Technology Standards

    With all due respect to your tablemates, there is nothing visionary about the new NETs.

    Why do we speak in such bumper sticker sayings as:
    * NETS are visionary, but perhaps what’s most important about them is that they will force visionary thinking.
    * We have to learn to have vision. We also have to teach our children how to make vision.
    * We have to learn to have vision. We also have to teach our children how to make vision.

    ?

    This might make for good poetry or even a campaign speech, but it is empty shallow meaningless rhetoric with no tangible application to classroom practice. You simply can’t use the word vision to define vision.

    How will what happens in a classroom Monday (or two years from Monday) be any better for children because of the NETS? One could make a credible argument that the quality of educational computing experiences for children has declined since the first set of Technology Standards.

  2. Why are we setting educational policy by haiku?

    What does ““Rather than learning the technology, we’re using technology to learn” mean?

    I realize that this is a popular form of rhetorical palindrome, but do you really believe it provides any real insight into advancing practice?

    By the way, even if such a statement does have meaning, it was undoubtedly first said by someone two decades ago. Advocates of information literacy need to be more careful about inventing phrases created by others.

    We’re not selling vegematics here.

  3. What about,

    When computers are outlawed, only outlaws will have computers…

    Mindless fortune cookie phrases do nothing to advance the cause. Here’s one that does have meaning though;

    When the vendors control ISTE, policy is shaped by vendor agendas.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *