The NETS – Not Just a Bad Team from New Jersey

Who’s job is it to teach the NETs standards to students and how do we ensure they are being met in an integrated model?  Easy – it is our (the teacher’s) responsibility to teach these standards.  As technology changes and the methods of instruction change with them, teachers must still teach.  Although the classroom looks different than it did 10 years ago, the fundamental idea of providing students access to learning has not.  More precisely, technology has merely enlarged the classroom and made information and content more easily available.  No longer do teachers need to be the holder of all information and distribute it in an archaic and didactic manner. Even further, students do not want this type of classroom.   

Schools/teachers must move away from the industrial business plan of education where content is shoveled to the students on a daily basis.  No, it is imperative that schools recognize the importance of a skills based education.  In today’s society, the discrete point regurgitation of information is no longer sufficient.  We must provide students a skills based, inquiry based education where they can adapt, adjust and thrive in the “real world”.   

 Everyone would agree that the standards are desirable for all students to strive for and attain: using the inquiry process; thinking critically; gaining knowledge and understanding; making conclusions; making informed decisions; applying knowledge to new situations and creating new knowledge.