While I was reading this article, about the reformation of standardized testing that the Common Core Standards should bring, I could not help but giggle every time they referred to the involvement of "humans" and "artificial intelligences" that will be integrated into the future of the test. It put me in a sci-fi state of mind, envisioning a bunch of little Spocks poking at glowing, transparent screens aboard a starship that revolves around the sun... But I guess all that can't happen by 2014.
Apparently what can be happening by 2014 is a full integration of computer based standardized state tests... Hmmmmmmmmm - I don't think so.
When it comes to Earth, New York City and the NOW, it will be a tough change to make considering the efforts it would take to not only teach students a certain amount of fluency in the technologies and programs they will face, but there will also be a considerable amount of effort revolved around the teaching of teachers a fluency that will enable them to teach the students in the first place. In fact, the teacher will probably be a more challenging student in the subject area.
We have come to a point in time where the kids in schools do not know what it is like to not have contact with a computer, but the teachers in the schools can - and might not have even learned how to use one at all. It's been evident in some of the teaching experience I have already had while helping out my fellow educators as they tackle technology for the first time. While one could be learning how to turn a computer on, another may need to understand that a spacebar is a universal key and is used the same on a PC and Mac (where a vocabulary lesson may have to immediately follow to define the terms: PC, and Mac). It's like teaching a new language.
Maybe Rosetta Stone should make a Tech Language edition... It may be our only hope.
We have come to a point in time where the kids in schools do not know what it is like to not have contact with a computer, but the teachers in the schools can - and might not have even learned how to use one at all. It's been evident in some of the teaching experience I have already had while helping out my fellow educators as they tackle technology for the first time. While one could be learning how to turn a computer on, another may need to understand that a spacebar is a universal key and is used the same on a PC and Mac (where a vocabulary lesson may have to immediately follow to define the terms: PC, and Mac). It's like teaching a new language.
Maybe Rosetta Stone should make a Tech Language edition... It may be our only hope.
Yes. This is going to be a challenge. More for some places than others, but we should be in this together. Recently, the International Society of Technology Educators published an open letter to President Obama indicating disappointment in the suggested cuts in education, just when schools are being asked to ramp up to new technology infused standards. http://www.iste.org/news/11-02-15/ISTE_Statement_on_President_Obama_s_FY12_Budget.aspx
ReplyDeleteThe role of the education specialist will be more important than ever in the coming years. I hope budgets are able to fund this need.
I hope so too!
ReplyDeleteIt is very hard to see a light at the ned of the tunnel in respect to the budget, especially concerning specialists in schools. Within the few years I've been teaching the school I work at has gone from having regularly staffed in-house specialists (literacy and math) to having none.
I hope specialties make a return to mine and many other schools in the city - they are an important asset to the continuing education of teachers... especially now with our concerns for teachers and their technological growth! Technologies specialists will be a true necessity in the near future.