High School Art Teacher in Old Bridge Township. This in particular teacher was not familiar with the official National Education Technology Standards for both Students and Teachers. She mentioned how in the school, computer labs are available for all classes to use upon request, but a computer technology class isn’t a requirement for all the students in the school. Although she had never heard of the NET Standards, she did mention that there is one computer within her art classroom that is there for students to use for printing out or searching for references for their work. She also stated that computers don’t play a huge role in her classes and other art classes because of the lack of computers that the students have to share with other classes throughout the school. After telling her a brief summary of the standards for students, she said that she knew technology was only going to grow more and more as time goes on, and thought that it was interesting that it is now an official standard. Being that she is in her mid fifties in age, she laughed as she mentioned how all the students she has had in the past few years and the students she currently has now can all operate and navigate through computers and technology better than anyone she knows. In the teacher’s perspective, being that this information was new to her, she was interested in how the school district might implement this into the curriculum of the high school students.
I was not surprised with the teacher’s reaction about the NETS, because she mentioned about the fact that this specific school doesn’t have a computer class requirement nor is there enough computers to make it a requirement. She has also been teaching for twenty-six years and although she is open to new teaching methods, she said that for her this would be a very different adjustment, just now putting this into the curriculum. She said that each year she is still learning new things and reads her students well enough for feedback to continue to grow and change her lesson plans, but that she has rarely thought about changes through the technology perspective.
As a future teacher, I am still unaware of so much within the Board of Education and wouldn’t know where to start with implementing the NETS into a school or school district. But after being a Montclair State Student, I now have a very diverse perspective on how to approach lesson plans, and technology is one of them. The only factor that might effect it would be a lack of computers and technology within a school.
Hi Karli,
ReplyDeleteI too interviewed an art teacher and received a similar response. The classroom described by this teacher as having one computer for students to print out references and research is the same situation at the school in which the art teacher I interviewed works. I am, however, very surprised that the school district in which this teacher works does not require some kind of computer technology class for all students. What was this teacher's overall opinion on that? Did that seem to displease her or did it seem normal to her? As a future teacher I can't imagine thinking that this would suffice; students now more than ever need computer technology classes.
In this particular high school, there was one or two computer art based classes that were optional for electives, among the dozens and dozens of electives for any student to take, but these aren't requirements at all. A basic art class isn't even a requirement. Each year a student can choose about 3 electives for their schedule, anything from art, cooking, sewing, fashion design, home economics, photography, music, music theory, electronics, auto repair, tv production, early childhood development, parenting, marine biology, creative writing, cosmetology, the list seriously goes on forever. So, besides the main subject requirements, gym, and health, there is no requirement for students to take art, let alone computer art.
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