Technology Evolution, ISTE Standards and Digital Natives

It is almost obvious that technologies change and evolves dramatically over the decades. This has a great impact on our life, work and also the way of teaching and learning. The change is not only on the surface that we are now using laptops to compose an essay while we were using typewriters before; we are now putting all the resources online in a Learning Management System while we stored books in the library (we still do) and handouts in the binders. The change is not only about using/ not using technologies, but it is a change in the way we interact and process information.

In the pre-Internet era, information was centralized in the newspaper, library, and even taverns. In the early stage of the Internet era, we go to web portals like Yahoo to get access to news and the information. However, social media decentralized our way of receiving and sharing information, as well as the way of building the social network. The development of visual design and the reduction of the cost of printing lead to a fact that people prefer pictures way better than text. Teagan suggested in her blog that the way of teaching that students prefer has changed and some of the old professors are not able to keep up with the fashion.

However, should a teacher keep up with the emerging technologies? My answer to that is yes and no. Yes, because, in reality, we do have to learn to wield these fancy technologies to facilitate teaching/ learning; but no because there is no way that one can always keep up with the technology development. Teachers should not chase the technologies like dogs chase the cars on the street: (a) cars are fast and (b) you never know which car is the right car to follow. It is way more important to understand the technologies and be a wise consumer. What is a wise consumer? I am buying this TV not because it is nice, big and on a Black Friday sale. I am buying this because I need a TV to sit down and watch. I want to build a hub in the living room that everyone in the house can come, watch, talk and share instead of staring at their own personal screen. Knowing what to teach, who to be taught and how to teach is way more important than what are the fanciest technologies out there.

Therefore, ISTE standard is worth reading here because it highlights the goal of using technologies: not for the sake of using technologies but to help our students to be a better citizen in the digital age. On the other hand, I don't personally like this standard because it appears to me that all the standards are some always-correct words and it does not provide much practical guidance to the teachers and students. In addition, 21st-century competencies are just the knowledge and skills that are advocated valued most in this decade. I am quite cynical on this issue here because I believe as human society evolves skills that are valued may change accordingly. I am sure that the skill of hunting and the knowledge of knowing eatable plants are more valued than creativity and collaboration in the pre-history society. Anyway, no matter what your stands on the ISET standard is, it is a good starting point for thinking and some interesting materials to reflect on.