October 2006 — Policy/Advocacy
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
A Plan Without a Plan
We are not that far away. Under the leadership of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, the states have developed a definition for technological literacy, and most state officials I talked to referenced it. Most states adhere to the International Society for Technology in Education’s National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). The standards are undergoing revision this year, and the new standards are expected to be unveiled at the 2007 National Education Computing Conference. To be clear, I am not advocating a national technology curriculum, although I would argue that we have a de facto national curriculum with NETS. I am not arguing for a national assessment, but I am heartened by how much the states are able to learn from each other.
In particular, West Virginia has taken a leadership position, rewriting its entire curriculum to enforce the development of 21st-century skills, including global awareness, problem solving, critical thinking, and technology proficiency. The state is looking at a rigorous assessment of all of those areas.
This new attention to EETT’s goal of technological literacy relates to a previous complaint from OMB that there is insuf- ficient data on the impact of the program. Now the department is requiring that the data be collected, but without an organized, consolidated collection strategy, the data will not reveal the impact of EETT or anything else. If we are going to go to the trouble of collecting data, let’s arrive at information that will help us know and understand more. Instead of leaving ourselves with apples and oranges, let’s at least do the work to create a fruit salad.
Geoffrey H. Fletcher is editorial director of T.H.E. Journal and executive director of T.H.E. Institute.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
