As part of my online PD, I watched a video of a lecture given by Annettte Lamb from the University of Indiana entitled, “Strong Nests, Successful Students: Strategies for 21st Century Learning”. (http://www.istevision.org/watch.php?vid=29d06f0ff07fff730a9295f032f416c56a07c034) In Lamb’s talk, she questions the learning benefits of some of the “cool” web 2.0 tools. She overviews the necessities of the 21st Century Learner as provided by the AASL (American Association of School Librarians):
- Inquire, think critically an gain knowledge
- Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, create new knowledge.
- Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of out society.
- Pursue personal and aesthetic growth.
Lamb challenges these standards with her own “test for the standards”:
- Will they challenge and engage young people in meaningful activities and assessments?
- Will they motivate young people to go beyond the basics and ask high level questions?
Lamb says she has become frustrated with “techie tools” and is missing simulations and inquiry-based learning. She says web-quests, which were popular in the 1990’s have gone by the wayside in substitution for some web 2.0 tools, however she says that web-quests offered a great opportunity for students to search for information and evaluate its validity and reliability, which promotes higher level thinking.
Lamb also says we need to promote practical technology-based skills with our students. For example: using electronic databases, uploading/downloading information, non-fiction reading comprehension, skimming and scanning websites to located desired information.
In her presentation, Lamb refers a great deal to ISTE and AASL Standards. Not being familiar with these, I did a little supplemental research and found that ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. The mission statement for ISTE is Mission Statement: ISTE advances excellence in learning and teaching through innovative and effective uses of technology (http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_ISTE). The ISTE has also developed NETS (National Educational Technology Standards) which reflect its belief in the innovative, professional, and authentic integration of technology into education.
Lamb goes on in her presentation to not only offer participants practical ways to integrate technology into various subject areas and give potential assignments and projects—but more importantly how to offer students more collaborative, and creative ways which students can integrate these technology tools in deeper level ways.
Marnie said,
March 23, 2010 at 2:37 am
ISTE “NETS” were one of the two compass points we looked at in Block 2. In the States, most school divisions that have a technology framework often use this one. In my own school board last year we discussed developing a framework but when we examined what was already out there, the work, thinking and rationale behind the NETS couldn’t be improved upon. What I also like is that they have recently updated the NETS standards which reflect more focus on higher order thinking with technology and less focus on learning how to use tools.