After browsing the NJ Core Curriculum Standards for Technology, the Frontline video clip about Chatham High School, and the other resources for this week, I feel overwhelmed. I knew that the expectations for teachers integrating technology in the classroom have change greatly in the past several years, but I did not know that the extent was so great now. Watching the Frontline video clip about Chatham High School was especially thought-provoking to me because Chatham High School is where I went to high school. I graduated there in 2006, and to see the ways that my school has progressed in its use of technology since then is startling. Regarding the Standards, I was surprised by the grade levels that students are expected to be proficient in certain technological tasks by. For example, I don’t think I ever touched a computer in school until third grade, yet the standards state that students are expected to be taught the basics of technology use by second grade. CPI 8.1.4A.3 states that students should be able to "create and present a multimedia presentation that includes graphics" by fourth grade. I probably did not do this until sixth grade. What I wasn’t doing with technology until eighth grade, students are probably already mastering by the sixth grade. As a future educator, it is intimidating that I will be expected to engage students with technology in ways that I may have never experienced in school, or at least not until a couple of years later than is now expected.
Specifically, I decided to focus on a standard under strand 8.2. According to CPI # 8.2.4A.2, students are expected to be able to do the following by the end of grade four: “Using a digital format, compare and contrast how a technology product has changed over time due to economic, political, and/or cultural influences.” When I am an English teacher, I could utilize this standard by conducting a lesson about the way that print technology has evolved throughout history from the written word to the printing press to online blogs and digital readers such as the Google Nook and the Amazon Kindle.
I agree that the pace of technology education required by the Tech CCS is surprising, and a little intimidating. I also wonder how schools will be supported in obtaining and maintaining the technology required to be taught. What's current changes so fast that any particular technology taught is likely to be dated in a couple of years. I believe that we, as teachers, will need to concentrate on imparting a way of thinking rather than how-to lessons. On the other hand, the funding needed to keep a school current has frequently not been there. In the current economy it seems likely to get worse, not better. The Chatham video never says where the funding came from for all their technology. The disparity between that school and many poorer schools in NJ makes me think that it was made possible either by a wealthier school district or participation in funding by parents. Will the State of NJ make up the difference for poorer school districts to meet the Tech CCS?
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