OETS

This week for EDUC 520 we were presented the Oregon Educational Technology standards or OETS for short.  My first impression after reading the OETS was that Oregon is headed in the right direction when it comes to integrating technology in the classroom.  I think that integrating technology in the classroom is going to be extremely vital in the years to come because year-by-year technology becomes more integrated into our lives.  What I really like about the criteria is that the OETS is not necessarily enforcing a mastery of new technology, but a competence in technology.  I think that by building a compotence for technology in our students it will help them when it comes to adapting and learning new technology. 

           

            One of the first criteria’s that jumped out to me was creativity and innovation.  According to the OETS, “Students develop creative thinking and problem solving skills to develop innovative products and processes using technology.”  I think I could have my students teach a subject in social studies to their classmates utilizing a technology they have a background in such as PowerPoint or iMovie.

            Another criteria that I thought about was Communication and Collaboration.  I will mostly use this for group settings.  I did not know what a google doc was before my ED tech class but it will be one of the first things I show my students in order to help with group projects.

            Lastly Research and Information Fluency is so crucial when it comes to academic papers.  An activity I will likely give my students is just a research project.  They wont necessarily have to write a paper with the information they find, but they will have to complete a checklist of different ways to research on the internet such as databases or scholarly journals.

            Some of the challenges I will face when it comes to the OETS and my student teaching is based on demographics.  Since I am placed in a lower demographic area the percentage of students with computer and Internet access at home is considerably lower.  I have already been thinking about solutions to this problem during my observation and I think that the libraries may be the answer to the problem.  The school library has 25 computers with internet access however there is not a full time librarian so the students need an adult present to use the computers.  I also visited the public library and there are community computers there with internet access.  All the students need is a library card.