Technology Standards Handout: Critique & Stengths and Weaknesses

Critique of the NJCCCS for Technology:

The Core Curriculum Content Standards in Computer and Technology Literacy foster curriculum development by providing teachers a foundation of what is expected to be taught and the various grade levels. The curriculum outlines a wide variety of topics that should be taught by the end of grades four, eight, and twelfth. Each of the topics has progress indicators that help guide through the core themes. Some of the core themes of the standards are:
1. Basic PC Usage (Keyboarding & Operating Systems)
2. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Society Through Different Designs and Systems (Ex: Medicine, Agriculture, Energy etc.)
3. Solving Problems Through Technology


Strengths of the Content Standards:

One of the strength of the curriculum is it allows the teacher their own independent implementation of how to teach the curriculum to their students. The curriculum is broad which allows teachers to implement and teach to their personal strengths in knowledge. Besides that, some other strengths of the technology curriculum are:
1. Skills and concepts are continuously built from one grade level to the next
2. Targets useful and real life skills that are applicable to daily life
3. User friendly—only two standards in total

Weaknesses of the Content Standards:

Some weaknesses in the technology curriculum at times it can be very “wordy” and hard to follow (using vague language such as appropriate and adequate). The curriculum is very broad and can be easily misinterpreted without a clear direction. Because it so broad, students from different school districts could be learning completely different educational themes from one another without a cohesive and more detailed outline for the teachers to follow. Other weaknesses also include the following:
1. Don’t consider advantages technology has for students with special needs
2. Has vague goals for students (partly because the standards are so broad)