Chalk it up to Luddism?

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) recently issued a new set of technology standards for teachers.

The first set of standards, issued in 2000, focused primarily on technology skills - proficiencies in PowerPoint, Word and email; knowing how to “cut and paste”, that sort of thing - as well as the use of technology to collect and analyze data.

The new standards stress the importance of how teachers can use technology to “promote the ability of students to learn effectively in an increasingly digital world”.

As one example, the four performance indicators for “inspiring learning and creativity” are:
1)    Promote, support and model creative and innovative thinking;
2)    Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems;
3)    Promote student reflection using collaborative tools; and
4)    Model collaborative knowledge acquisition by engaging in learning with students.

Most readers will recognize similarities to the “21st century skills” model.

For each of these indicators, the document describes what meeting the standard would look like at four levels of competency: beginning, developing, proficient and transformative. While this terminology sounds similar to the PSSAs, this strikes me as a more sophisticated and potentially useful model for measuring student learning.

By the way, all of this makes me wonder: in this day of digital projectors and electronic whiteboards (not to mention 30-year-old overhead projectors) why are some teachers – and many university professors - are still using chalk on a chalkboard?  Just asking..