Technology skill set: mine, yours, and ours?

Jun 29 2008

Published by Skip Zalneraitis at 13:09 under Education, Existential, ISTE, Management, Professional Development, Technology and tagged: Arundel, Education, ISTE, Mike Richards, NETS-T, PD, The Journal

Mike Richards is the author of Notes From Millie D , and a technology teacher/integrator in Arundel Maine. He is one of seven or eight techno-geek-education types in the USA who aren’t in San Antonio this week for NECC. I only know him through blogging, tweeting, and plurking, but his writing/offerings are outstanding. He dusted off the following list over a year ago. It has gotten legs again this week. In June 2007, Mike wrote:

Trying to some spring cleaning I ran across an article from The Journal (June 2005) titled 20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have. Here is a listing of the 20 skills:

Word Processing Skills
Spreadsheets Skills
Database Skills
Electronic Presentation Skills
Web Navigation Skills
Web Site Design Skills
E-Mail Management Skills
Digital Cameras
Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
Videoconferencing skills
Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
Scanner Knowledge
Knowledge of PDAs
Deep Web Knowledge
Educational Copyright Knowledge
Computer Security Knowledge

At that point, Web 2.0 was just infancy. Making a May 2007 edition what things would you add to the list, but more importantly, what would you take off the list?

How would you alter the list in June 2008?

I have already formulated and distributed a ’skills survey’ to develop resources and expose weaknesses based on the, soon antiquated, NETS-T: One-liners on a chart with boxes to check indicating level of ability. With the new NETS-T in hand, perhaps I can formulate a survey that may be valid, appropriate for a year.

What do you think?

3 responses so far

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3 Responses to “Technology skill set: mine, yours, and ours?”

# Joshon 29 Jun 2008 at 13:23

I think the word processing and email could go away or be reworded to include a broader scope. Something along the lines of digital communication? That would include a lot of things and I do believe that all educators need some form of digital communication, from parents to other educators.
# Michael Richardson 29 Jun 2008 at 13:44

Skip, thanks for the mention. I think the 20 items are still valid but agree with Josh that a few of these should be grouped to be more inclusive of a broader scope.

I think there are some big items that should be included like the ability to function within the social web (blogs, wikis, bookmarking, networks, etc) as well as the harnessing the power of RSS.

The next version of NETS-T will be interesting to see how they incorporate the social web.
# Heidi Penceon 10 Jul 2008 at 11:45

I might add or modify the list to include:
Website communication/updating skills

Many school districts have gone to online grading and assignments on a daily basis.

Web 2.0 skills that I would want every educator to be using would include wikis, social bookmarking programs like del.icio.us and rss feeds.

Looking closely at the list I would not taking anything off of it. All of the items still seem important and not outdated to any great degree.