NECC has come and gone and it was quite an event this year. This is the first time that I have found no time to blog during the session itself. There was so much to take in and so much to see. I’m now back at GSU and wanted to grab a few moments to post about some of the sessions I attended.
I couldn’t have started with a better one. ISTE has created a refreshed NETS for Students to meet the challenges of today’s increasingly digital world! Hearing the story of the process that was used as these standards were refreshed for students was so exciting. Feedback has been received brom all 50 states and 22 countries. Key people involved spoke to the audience and a clear picture emerged began to emerge.
You can see the major shift in that the focus is more on skills and expertise and less on tools. Here are the categories:
- Creativity & Innovation
- Communication & Collaboration
- Research & Information Fluency
- Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, & Decision-Making
- Digital Citizenship
- Technology Operations & Concepts
At the end we were given a summation of 4 things to remember about this whole process. This summation was given by David (I am so sorry that I did not get his last name.) It was uplifting to say the least because just look at the threads of Web 2.0 that weave throughout these four points.
- This represents the collective wisdom of thousands of people around the country. think of this as a folksonomy. It is about user participation. All the people who care about a topic contribute – tagging, thoughts, ideas.
- This is about learning, not just technology. It’s about using technology to learn. Learning is first and foremost.
- It is sometimes referred to as a map that you can use to guide your learning. The map is not the territory. Once you get somewhere you must navigate. The potential won’t be realized until you put it into practice in the classroom. Then we were asked to blog about it. They want to hear our voices – what we hear, what we see, what we do.
- These standards are best when they work together with the essential conditions you need to have in your schools to get technology integration to work. these are part of a larger system. They are not free-standing.
Then at one point during the session we were asked to get out digital cameras out and turn to the person next to us and give them a high five. They want to document this. We will send our photos to them and they will do a big collage to celebrate.
It indeed is a celebration! And what an uplifting experience! They closed saying how much they looked forward to hearing from all of us! Let your voices be heard this year!
