Last week (October 1st & 2nd), I had the opportunity to attend the Utah Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Conference in Provo, Utah. The keynote speaker for the first day was Alan November. He spoke on several important topics relating to technology in education. The following points summarize what I believe were the important ideas.
- Development of a global work ethic is important.
- Two keys to a global work ethic are human relationships and problem-solving.
- Accompanying this global work ethic is creativity and inventiveness.
- He argued that improving test scores does exactly that, improve test scores. It does not, however, address the problems presented by a global economy. The simple fact is that if a company has to choose between two workers of equal education, one from the United States and one from another country, the company will hire the worker that will do the job for less money. This is generally the worker living and working in a nother country because the United States enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world, which means that the worker in the United States would expect a higher wage. The way for students in the United States to distinguish themselve is through creativity and innovation.
- Relating to internet literacy, he argued that everyone should know two basic things.
- How do search engines find and return results.
- For example, Google returns results based on the address (URL), what is listed in the title of the webpage (title bar), and links between sites. Google does not return the most reliable or accurate site.
- What is the grammar and syntax of the internet and how to use it to find quality results
- For example, if a URL has .uk in the address the site is from the United Kingdom
- Advanced search commands for Google can be found at: http://www.google.com/help/operators.html
- Example: If I want to find information about the British perspective of the Revolutionary War, search for “revolutionary war site:uk”
- How do search engines find and return results.
- The final portion of his presentation focused on how to help students own their learning by using tools for technology. Rather than trying to summarize his points, I suggest you read this article that outlines 6 jobs that help students own their learning through the use of technology.
One very important point the Mr. November made was to not try to do everything at once. Choose one thing, learn it and do it well. When comfortable, then add something else new.