Standard III: Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum Reflection

Standard III, teaching, learning, and the curriculum was an area that I have historically had little interaction with, but during the past eighteen months, I have become much more familiar with. Before covering this standard I really had not given much thought into how the students were using the technology, simply assuming that if they knew how to use it, they probably knew how to use it effectively. This standard points out that while students are able to use technology, many times they don’t know how to translate that knowledge into being productive. This information allowed me to take a critical look at how technology is implemented within our school district, especially at the high school where every student is issued a laptop. During the initial setup of the laptops a wiki and blog server was setup and because of my knowledge of this standard, I made sure that basic steps for accessing the blog and wiki server were written down and distributed to the teachers and students. If I had not read this standard I would have simply gave verbal instructions to some of the teachers, then left it to them to instruct the other teachers and students.

While I was able to give the written instructions to the staff and students, there was much more that I could have done, such as hosting an after school workshop or “how to” so that they could actually use the blog and wiki while I was there to answer any questions or concerns. Since this is something that I don’t normally do or am involved in, I have much to learn and understand when implementing this standard. Assessing my performance with this task is a little more difficult than some of the others in that all I did was to plant the initial seed and give them enough information to get started, after that they were free to explore and use the tools on their own. Because of this I cannot gauge how well I did by the amount of blogs or wikis being created and used, but merely by the individuals that thanked me for letting them know. The one thing that I did do was to discuss how the teachers would use the services with the technology director and one of the high school teachers, this allowed me to model the sites in a certain way and have certain services available to them, such as RSS feeds, so that they could use the sites to the fullest of their ability. This is a habit that I have followed through on and from that point forward I have always discussed items that directly involve teachers with them before writing up a how to guide.

I don’t really have any questions about this standard in that it seems like something that is constantly evolving with the technology and that there will always be a need to ensure that the technology is used to its fullest extent. Training for students and teachers is something that I have historically not been very involved with, but armed with the knowledge that I have gained over the last eighteen months I am ready to help create classes to help the teachers and students use the technology that is implemented I the schools properly.

Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards. Washington D.C.: International Society for Technology in Education.