Monday’s Homework July 11th—AASL and NETS Standards
In what way do the AASL and NETS standards represent a departure from education as you experienced it when you were in high school?
One of the first things I noticed when reading the common beliefs is that they talk about the student taking responsibility for their own learning and assessment in order to become an independent learner. We were asked to do our homework, but there was never any mention of becoming an independent learner. College was the first time that I ever remember having to use citations and I don’t really remember learning much about them except how to cite a book. And of course, the most technologically advanced piece of equipment I used in high school was a pen. I didn’t even get an electric typewriter until I went to college. Learning was not a social thing. You were lectured to in class while you took notes. You then went home and read out of a textbook, studied the notes and then took a written test. The most social thing about it was that I occasionally studied for a test with a friend.
There was not a lot of thinking for yourself, or drawing conclusions, or maked informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations and create new knowledge. Learning was a much more passive thing. You read, you memorized and you took a test and hoped you passed. The only class that I remember getting really excited about learning in high school was my freshman psychology class. It was a new and innovative school and my teacher was an amazing man who talked about hard subjects like abortion and apartheid. I remember some very raw and open discussions that were hard but exciting to me. I felt that my mind had expanded in ways that it never had before. And I don’t remember another class like it until I went to college. If I could see him again, I’d thank him for teaching us in the way that he did. I’m sure it was radical for the time—this was the early seventies. Sharing was not a big part of learning, other than the teacher sharing the information with us. You certainly didn’t assess your own learning. That’s what testing was for!
We're already 11 years into the 21st century. Are we already behind in implementing these standards? Using your own school (or a school you know well) as an example, how would your school measure up. Use specific examples.
I don’t believe that I can say Yes—our entire school system is behind the times because there are school out there that are very much 21st century schools, but as a whole, I would say that probably the majority of schools are still in the traditional 20th century teaching mode. I believe that my school district is and my school is. While the students learn to use technology in the computer class, and they know from their home experiences, the majority of the teachers don’t teach the students how to be responsible digital citizens. I’ve noticed that when the teachers bring the students in to use the computers that they don’t ask them to cite the photographs they use, or even teach them to find the photographs or clip art from the Creative Commons. Other than a few exceptions, most of the teachers have the children write their reports in Word and add a couple of pictures or clip art and then have them print them off. They don’t teach them to use things like Animoto or VoiceThread or even Prezi to do reports.
I’m not in the classrooms except to deliver papers occasionally, but I don’t see much collaboration except in the science classrooms where the students work together to create catapults as part of one of their units. And I was horrified by the teaching style of the home economics teachers. (I know it’s not called that now, but I can’t remember what it is called.) Her idea of teaching them about child development was to show them a movie made back in the seventies. She turns out the light, turns on the video and sits at her desk and hollers at the students while they talk to each other throughout the very boring and out of date movie. That isn’t teaching—that’s babysitting.
I realize that it is hard for teachers nowadays. They have a lot of expectations placed on them especially with all the standardized testing, but there has to be a way to inspire them to talk and work with the students more and not talk at the students. But it also means more responsibility for the students and the parents and unfortunately, sometimes neither care. Or the parents care, but they’re too busy working and paying the bills to help their children.
In the NETS, it says that students are supposed to be able to collaborate, even from a distance. Our school doesn’t have a library Web site, so there is no way for the students to retrieve any information from the library databases or to collaborate with teachers and other students outside of the school. This will change if I have any say in the matter! Some of the other bigger school districts are not as behind as ours. But, I don’t think there is any excuse for a small school district not to have the same advantages as the larger school districts. With some many free Web sites and tools available online, there is no excuse for not providing your students with the tools they need to succeed in the 21st century. Administrators, teachers and librarians have to work together to create this open communication and collaborative learning environment. It can be done but all parties have to be committed to making it work.
Works Cited:
“ALA | AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.” American Association of School Librarians. 27 May 2011. Web. 11 Jul 2011. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/standards.cfm
“NETS Student Standards 2007.” ISTE: Interenational Society for Technology in Education 2007. 27 May 2011. Web. 11 Jul 2011.
We got to use an electric typewriter for two weeks as part of the rotation in my advanced typing class!
ReplyDeleteYour example of the teacher showing out of date films as an exercise in passing the time is quite surprising to me. There is so much emphasis on producing that I wonder how any teacher can just fill time.