I recently interviewed a math teacher, for the ninth and twelfth grade, in the Parsippany Troy-Hills School District about the NETS-S and NETS-T. The teacher interviewed seemed familiar with NETS-S and NETS-T but based on their responses, I do not feel that they were extremely knowledgeable about the subject. For instance, when I first asked about NETS-S and NETS-T the teacher seemed unfamiliar with the term and did not understand what I was talking about until I provided a copy to them. Furthermore, when we talked more in depth about NETS-S/NETS-T the teacher seemed to view NETS as solely the integration of technology within the curriculum and school but did not show any indication of understanding that there are several components which comprise NETS-S/NETS-T.
It seems as though the school district has begun to implement the NETS-S and NETS-T. According to the teacher, the district currently has three main target groups for technology initiatives: ninth graders, special education students, and the remainder of the student population (10th, 11th, and 12th graders). The teacher indicated that in the coming year, all ninth grade and special education students would be receiving iPads and that these would be used consistently throughout their classes to enhance and further student learning. The teacher stated blatantly that most other students aside from these two populations are being ignored and that this can largely be attributed to the fact that NETS-S/NETS-T is not being employed in a standardized fashion for both students and teachers. Nonetheless, the teacher believes that come 2016 NETS-S/NETS-T will be incorporated more fully within the district and will target the whole of the student population as well as the educators in the various schools.
For the most part, I was not surprised by the teacher’s responses because I did not expect the teacher to be particularly knowledgeable about NETS-S/NETS-T seeing as they are relatively new to the teaching profession and have not had thorough training in this area. Furthermore, the teacher made clear that technology incorporation is not heavily emphasized on a standardized level within their district which led me to infer that NETS-S/NETS-T was not employed fully, if at all, in their school and thus the teacher could not be expected to be overtly familiar with these standards. Despite this, one response from the teacher did surprise me, their statement that “students not in the ninth grade or special education are currently being ignored.” I was surprised by this solely because I did not think that any group of students would be overlooked in terms of technology integration initiatives.
As a future educator, I plan to stress the importance of NETS-S and NETS-T to my colleagues and administrators because I feel that they are not implemented and utilized to their fullest potential. As an educator, I would emphasize the need to incorporate these standards at all grade levels as well as subject areas so that technology integration can occur through pedagogical strategies used to complete curriculum content goals.
I am very interested to hear that the teacher you spoke to has an idea what the NETS are and that her district has applied it in some sense already, while planning to expand it. The teacher I interviewed had never heard of them, but she was an experienced teacher, so there is that disparity still available. It's curious that there are only three target groups thus far, rather than everyone. Did she tell you some of the things they do to introduce technology in the classroom?
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