Reflection: Assistive Technology and Technology Standards

A class website is an excellent example of an assistive technology that can be used in the classroom.  The website allows both the students and their parents access to the same information concerning the class.  The website can have a calendar that lists the due dates of projects; rubrics related to the projects may be posted; lectures and powerpoint presentations can be uploaded to it; and a discussion forum can be maintained.  While the class website benefits all students, students with learning disabilities will be especially benefitted.  For example, if a student has ADHD and is prone to forgetting assignments, the student can access the class website to find out what the assignment is.  Students with attention span, auditory or visual problems can review the class material as much as needed.  The discussion forum allows students with learning disabilities sufficient time to formulate an appropriate response which may be difficult for them to formulate during class.  However, a website may be challenging or time consuming to set up and maintain.

A blog, on the other hand, can accomplish the same things as a class website.  There are a number of free blog websites and they are easy to setup and maintain.  Class materials may be posted or linked to them to provide easy access to the reader.  Teachers can establish meaningful discussions by blogging questions to the class.  The same benefits for students and students who are learning disabled as discussed above apply to blogs.  An excellent benefit to either a class website or blogging is that parents can easily involve themselves in activities of the class without having to find time to meet with the teacher or try to discover the information from their suddenly less than talkative teenagers.

The technology standards set out for teachers and students by the International Society for Technology in Education are obviously based on Constructivist principles rather than Cartesian principles.  Additionally, they are also forward looking in that they seek to prepare students to join a rapidly changing workplace. 

The traditional workplace has been very hierarchical and many sectors still are.  However, the growth of the technology industry is changing this model to a collaborative environment.  This is evident as discussed in videos viewed during class where executives of IDEO and Pixar describe their collaborative work environment.  Also, Web 2.0 allows anyone to add or modify content online.  Web 2.0 not only allows students to communicate with students globally but also allows students to collaborate on projects leading these students to view themselves as part of the global community.

The content standards are also designed for students to reach the top levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy; application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  To reach these levels, students will guide themselves and their peers in obtaining the requisite knowledge and understanding for completing their projects.  Teacher content standards are connected to the student’s standards in essence by having the teacher become the facilitator and modeler of student learning.

However, as revolutionary as these standards may become for the education system, there still possess a couple of issues.  First, schools are not created equal in their access to technology.  Some schools are fortunate enough to have sophisticated computer labs, smartboards, and the ratio of computers to students is much smaller than other schools which may only have one computer in the classroom if they are lucky.  Also, some schools are able to connect to the internet at higher speeds than others.  For these standards to really enact change in the education system, the country must find a way to narrow the technology gap among schools.

Second, schools and students are currently being evaluated based on test performance.  Test performance is just one snapshot of what a student has learned throughout the school year.  The technology standards advocate for more of a project/portfolio system for assessing what students have learned.  This creates conflict when teachers shift to a portfolio system of assessment implied by the technology standards when the students are currently assessed by standardized tests.  This conflict will remain until there is a uniform decision on which method the country wants to choose.