National Education(al Technology Standards)

No, this is not about National Education.

Today as part of our course, we're being asked to take a look at the 2007 ISTE NETS.S — the National Educational Technology Standards for Students. (Link here.) I think these standards make perfect sense in a world where the primary information technologies are essentially digital and which are now a part of daily life.

We were asked to respond to the question, "What surprises you most about these standards? Why?"

I don't think much surprises me anymore. Looking at these standards, I am instead struck by a sense of how inevitable every one of them is. They are not just core ethical principles, but rather principles of a core ethic: the world in which we live has to be handled this way, or all will be chaos. Actually, the chaos bit is inevitable too, come to think of it; it's the management of the chaos which is important. As in the older Greek myths, and before that the Babylonian, power and will mould chaos into substance—and from substance comes the promise of better things.

We look towards a better age, it seems. The way we look at this age, however, is rather interesting. By the sheer fact of calendar change, the start of the 21st century is seen as some sort of incredible watershed in human progress. Organisations like the Partnership for 21st Century Skills seem to believe that human nature has changed so much that the kind of skills that would have been important in any century have been appropriated entirely by the 21st. Just look at this!