I have to start re-quoting Hellen Keller: "It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision."Yes indeed, that is terrible. Today's education system needs the integration of technology but it have to be incorporated with a coherent vision. The vision must support the entire educational community. The 10 elements that the ISTE found as essential conditions for the incorporation of technology are well balance.
There is one downfall to this whole guideline, and that is the necessity of trained teachers to incorporate efficiently these essential conditions. The entire scholar community administration including teachers and parents need to have share vision so they co exist in a supportive environment for the sake of the students. Teachers need to have plenty access to technology which should include technical assistance. There are few other elements that teachers must have to have an efficient environment to incorporate technology learning skills.
When reading the articles: After the Bell, Beyond the Walls and It's Magic: an Educator Vision of the future, I realize the diversity of visions that us teachers might have.
For the current education system, I believe that Eric Langhorst has done a wonderful execution of incorporating today's technology in his classroom. I do believe that learning is not a 45 minute time slot, is a continuous process and students must be motivate to carry on with it beyond the walls of their school buildings. I recognize the effectiveness of StudyCast can provide to special learners. This is one awesome idea, that should be practice in our educational system. There is a need to target special need students in our schools, and sometimes it sounds difficult to do so, but this article is a vivid example that with the correct incorporation of today's gadgets students can achieve good performance with great results. I have to admit that asking for the support of expert can sometimes be a little difficult, because as experts they have tight schedules. Incorporating blogs and podcast in order to allow access to experts is a wonderful idea that should be also practice in all American school.
On the other hand, the article It's magic..., I find just a little unrealistic. Although it takes place on the year 2025, who knows what we will have then, I found that the incorporation of new technology to motivate students to science project proposals was a hit. Being a scientist myself, it is my concern on how science education is being portrait in today's educational system. It seems to me that making teachers to follow just state standards is not enough to cover a lot of topic options in this field. The standard to some extent are Ok, but they don't motivate students interest in science. Technology is a great tool that can be use to enhance science education. As for example the creation modern models, having students create their own theory and allowing them explain through out 3D animations, is one of the ways of increasing their self esteem and their engagement in science studies.
The ISTE is doing a good job on providing guidelines for the incorporation of new technology in our education system. However, what does the future have for us? We don't know yet, is a work in progress and hopefully the end result will be an outstanding one.
Truly,
Wida
