The NETP: Agressive or Realistic?

Coming from an engineering background, I will be one of the first people to support the implementation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into any and all classrooms. However, like everything in life, I believe these are excellent tools when utilized in moderation. Combining technology with in-class instruction, hands-on activities, visual representations and an open forum for asking questions, in my opinion, still makes for a more rounded student with a better understanding of what has been taught. I do think the National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) has a great motive in theory; however, I am a little skeptical of validity.

Prior to integrating technology into the classroom, students need to be taught at some point how to effectively and efficiently use basic technology. For example, they need to be taught how to verify and validate a reliable source when searching for information/data; they need to understand that a spell check will not always catch improper word usages such as “their” versus “there” or “are” versus “our”. As the student’s progress in grades and the complexity of the assignments and technology increases, they will then need to be trained on the new technology. As an engineer, when I ran simulations (simulations saved thousands of dollars over actual part testing) I always did a “gut check” with my results. Did the resulting numbers seem reasonable? Were they in the correct units? If something did not seem right, I would have to go back and double check my inputs. Students need to understand that technology is still only as smart as the individual using the data/information

The assessment piece of the NETP in my mind still has a ways to go. It sounds as though it is designed more as an intervention than an overall assessment. And using data to drive continuous improvement is by far the most effective way to find weak areas and to fix them. From a mathematics perspective, I think this would be an excellent tool to have in order to take quick “snap shots” of how my students are doing at a given time. On the other hand, I am not necessarily worried about my students getting the right answer so much as I am concerned that they have the problem solving process down. When a student of mine can demonstrate that they know the process and they realize that they have made a mistake by using the “gut check/does this answer seem reasonable” approach, I will give them more credit than a student that does not show any work but comes up with the correct answer.

As a final thought, I feel that the five goals of the NETP are very aggressive. The two goals that seem to stick out the most to me are the Learning and Infrastructure goals (numbers 1 and 4). The learning goal will be hard to obtain without parental support at home. I have already had parents tell me that their child does not have time to work on school work as their help is needed on the family dairy farm or that they cannot “make” their child do homework because the student does not want to – they would rather be with their friends after school. In addition, with an economy like we currently have I find it hard to believe the every student will have available internet access outside of the classroom.

By no means am I opposed to the NETP. For change to take place, an idea needs to be put to shape and available for trial and error until it is perfected, or at least useable. However, this plan is a five year plan. With the hardships that this plan faces, I think it might be a tight timeline to abide by.