NETS for Teachers

National Education Technology Standards for Teachers

Technology has become a very important tool in the learning process. In college classrooms students can be seen taking notes on laptops, collecting research for papers through digital archives and turning in assignments to professors through the Internet. Many elementary school classes are now transitioning away from the traditional textbook and handwritten paper format to more technologically based projects. Today’s students are surrounded by technology through the use of email, text messaging and instant messaging. As educators, we must prepare our students to use technology in an appropriate and constructive manner.

Many of the current instructional programs being adopted by schools contain a technology component that is designed to enhance student learning. The social studies program that our school adopted two years ago relies on technology to aid instruction. Teachers have the option of using a “Digital Path” or they can use traditional workbooks and workbook pages. When we adopted the program, the company provided a one-day in-service training to provide our teachers with a crash course on how to use all of the technological components. This program has had only minimal success at our school due to a lack of training. Many of the teachers at our school are not comfortable using this “Digital Path” program. As a result, most classes are being taught using the “Paper and Book Path”.

Teachers must be trained to effectively use technology in the classroom. As mentioned in the KQED Pod Cast on the McKinsey Educational Report, schools must be prepared to train their educators to use technology in the classroom and to implement the NETS. This would include sending teachers to workshops, in-service trainings or college courses. In addition, schools should be promoting technology training by providing funding for their teachers to attend these training sessions. In our district teachers have the opportunity to sign up each month to attend a technology course called “Technology Tuesday”. These courses cover a variety of topics, but attendance is not mandatory.


Some of the important points of the Technology Standards include the following:
1. V. D. Use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents, and the larger community to nurture student learning.
a. More and more schools are finding that technology is a great way to communicate with parents and the school community. Our school is currently evaluating our school website. The goal is to improve parent/teacher communication through email, utilize class web pages, post tuition notices, applications, and parent service hours. The Internet is a valuable tool to help parents get involved in our schools and classrooms.

2. VI: E. facilitate equitable access to technology resources for all students.
a. We must analyze the amount of computers that are in the classroom or the availability of laptops.

3. VI:D Promote safe and healthy use of technology resources.
a. We must teach computer safety in school. Students must be taught how to protect their ideas and identity when using the web. Though my students are young, many of the students in the upper grades are involved in programs like My Space and Face book. Students need to be made aware of the advantages and disadvantages of posting their pictures, stories and personal information on these sites.

4. II: C: Identify and locate technology resources and evaluate them for accuracy and suitability.
a. Students must learn how to find reliable sources on the Internet and how to evaluate the quality of a website.

5. II:E. Plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment.
a. Teachers need to develop plans to monitor how students are using computers, group chats and instant messaging. As mentioned in class on April 19th, one method is to have students print out a copy of a chat.

I strongly support the points made in the NETS for teachers, but I find them to be rather broad when trying to apply them in the classroom. As a teacher, it would be helpful to see these skill levels broken down by age group. I discussed the NETS with the computer teacher at our school to explore how she uses them to work with her students. The computer teacher was very excited by these standards, but found that they did little to guide instruction. She has found that there are few guidelines that state what skills should be taught at each grade level. Our computer teacher tries to collaborate with classroom teachers to design lesson plans.