Interactivity 5

I interviewed a friend that's a teacher that I've met through the internet  (In keeping their identity secret, I'm going to refer to them in gender neutral terms so it will sound somewhat awkward.).  They are a general science/physics teacher at a private school in Humboldt County California.

They weren't particularly aware of the existence of NETS standards.  They saw the standards as a mixed bag.  They agreed that the standards were important, but cautioned about over doing it and becoming over dependent on technology and taking focus away from other ways of learning (specifically they mentioned 3a.  in the NETS-A standards pdf)

The school they worked at hasn't made any attempts at integrating standards like those found in the NETS standards.  They personally try to incorporate the use of technology in the classroom and seek various sources of information on the internet to help lessons.  For example they used a few flash games to illustrate a physics lesson on projectile motion.  As a younger teacher, they don't have much pull in the school, and have to avoid possible conflicts with other teachers and superiors so even if they wanted to put forth an effort to adopt some of the NETS standards, it would be risking their job.


None of the answers from the interview really surprised me.  I've known this teacher for a few years, so a few issues regarding technology have come up in conversations.  They've mentioned how the school administrators were more resistant to change, so they resist the adopting technology until it's forced on them by outside forces.  However I was more taken back with the sort of infighting that existed between the teachers at the school.

I'm not too sure how I would speak to others about NETS.  I would really like to be more familiar with teaching before giving my definitive few. I know the importance of technology in today's world, but effectively incorporating it into a teaching when I have little experience is difficult for me to say.  Then there is the issue of incorporating it in effective means across the curriculum fields.



https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjKIDFq9eQlidEt3TGhrSWx3bC1ObXdKM2N6UDBNbGc