Refreshing the ISTE Technology

I read an article call Refreshing the ISTE Technology Standards by Gary Stager June 2007. The article talks about how the NETS standards should be updated. It says that educators should consider what our students need to know and to be productive in a digital and global society. It asks why did it takes so long to identify creativity and innovation as importance of several of the "noncore" areas of the school curriculum such as the arts and some of the less structured learning opportunities as major forces in developing creativity and innovation in students. It saids "that most stakeholders assumed the U.S. had a lock on world eadership in these two areas". "Chinese nationals made it clear that the world is rapidly cutting into our lead". You need creativity and innovation to generate salaries and employment opportunties in the U.S. workforce. The NETS refresh document targets the audiences of teachers, learning resources developers, school leaders, students, parents and the community.
NETS outlines what students should know about technology and what they should do within the school context. Their are six standards to NETS. This was an article that Gary Stager asked questions of Don Knezek, CEO of the ISTE. They said that the NETS are not mandatory. He says there is a number of consequences they face, if not met. Each state decides its own standards they follow. The schools need to intervene to accomplish NETS results. They say that their is a lot being done at different levels to provide students with the tools to achieve NET standards. They feel that students should learn to use presentation software effectively and need self responsibility with the internet. It talks about how students do not need to know how to program and master computer science. ITSE views corporations as important sponsors of NETS. With the ITSE it always puts the students needs and concerns first.

Internet Safety

I though that the interent videos were interesting. I cannot stress how important it is to proctect yourself and your children from internet predators. Internet safety is defintely a concern for parents today. There are pros and cons with the internet. It is great to research topics, but there are people out there who hack into computers to steal information or plant viruses in people's computers. Then there are the predators who use chat rooms to lure children and teenagers. As a future teacher/parent I think that you need to monitor what the children are viewing, especially if they are in any chat rooms.

Introducation Blog

Hello everyone, my name is Michele. I would like to thank Professor Luongo and Violeta for taking time to help me through my first blogging experience. "A long process." 'Blogging" is a whole new experence for me, first I was afraid I thought I would never get it, now I am eager to see how it goes. Learn as I go. I am looking foward to learning new things in this class that can futher my knowledge. I am looking forward to communicating with my fellow classmates/ professor and learning and sharing new ideas among each other.

Hello

This is my first post.