Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Aves Ruffin-Justis
EDTC 645
Introduction
person or entity to another using technology (ICT, 2010). With the synthesizing of these two
articles: Introducing ICT in schools in England: Rationale and Consequences (Hammond, 2014)
and The Acceptance and Use of a Virtual Learning Environment in Higher Education: An
Empirical study in Turkey and the UK (Kurt & Tingoy, 2017), I will be focusing on the use of
technology for blended learning in the k-12 classroom and in the secondary classroom. Mr.
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of England said, students cannot be ready for the future if what they
are learning is from the past (Hammond, 2014). I feel to prepare students for the future work-
The two articles I synthesized have two different opinions on getting students prepared
for the future work-world when using information communications technology. One perspective
comes from the k-12 environment and other perspective comes from a secondary environment.
Hammond mentions (2014) millions of British students are not prepared for jobs in the
world of technology (Gove, 2012). This is his argument for ICT to be used in vocational classes
and not married in to all subject areas. Vocational classes are referred to Further Education (Kurt
and Tingoy, 2017). What are the standards for further education? Are these standards different
This article mentions how using ICT in British schools cannot have an impact on the
standards. I researched the standards for teachers and students in the U.K. The standards say
Country Case Report 3
teachers should develop an environment that is stimulating and motivating for all their students.
It also says the curriculum should challenge students (Department for Education, 2013). In my
opinion, blended learning will stimulate students. Using applications, programs and online tools,
will help teachers make their lesson implementation time more effectively; which is another
Teachers also must prepare their students for further education (Department for
Education, 2013). Further education, is vocational training. Using technology with traditional
methods of teaching would prepare students for further education and for the job market.
Missing from this article is the data about professional developments for teachers. Is the
reason why teachers don’t see technology as relevant in the k-12 classroom the fact they are not
properly trained to use technology in every subject area. After viewing the teaching and learning
standards, using technology in the classroom would be a great use of class time and would
The article The Acceptance and Use of a Virtual Learning Environment in Higher
Education: An Empirical study in Turkey and the UK poses the question, are students graduating
from high school and entering college ready to navigate through a virtual learning environment
(Kurt and Tingoy, 2017)? The article states the secondary student is willing to use technology in
The data in this article has some discrepancies. One, is out of the 510 college students
that participated in this project, 99 of them did not have access to the internet (Kurt and Tingoy,
Country Case Report 4
2017). If they were college students living on campus, why didn’t all of them have access to the
internet? That is a piece of data that is missing from this article and to me is crucial to the
findings of this paper. Did the 99 not have internet because they were commuters or were they
all commuters and the 411 had internet at home? The reason why I think this data is important is
because in Introducing ICT in schools in England: Rationale and Consequences the use of
technology wasn’t relevant in the classroom. This raises the question, was the internet not easily
accessible at home and that’s why it wasn’t feasible to use in the classroom because the students
Conclusion
In both articles I find a few issues. One of the issues is are there are not any professional
developments for teachers to use ICT in a blended learning environment. Hammond (2014)
Unfortunately, throughout the article, there was not any indication of what standards that can be
impacted or how they can be impacted (Hammond, 2014). The same article says technology has
no impact on learning or teaching standards. According to the standards, teachers must have
lesson plans that are challenging to students and lesson plans that expose students to other
The CTE standards in the U.S. are compatible to the Future Education standards in the
U.K. CTE stands for Career Technical Education. One of the practices of the CTE standard is
students should use technology to become career workforce and ready students should have
experiences with students of other cultures (CTE, 2018). Having exposure to other cultures, will
Hammond (2014) states ICT in the Future Education environment is to learn the technology.
The CTE standards promote using technology to teach a subject matter and not just to teach the
technology. Looking at ICT to promote skills globally and domestically is a concept that is
stated in the CTE standards for the U.S.
Using ICT in other subject matters and being globally ready is in the ISTE Standards for
the U.S. as well. ISTE stands for International Society for Technology Education. The standard
indicator states technology should be used to teach students global citizenship and to enhance
subject matter (ISTE, 2014) Students should not be restricted to using technology only in the
Future Education or CTE classes but technology should be used to enhance all subjects.
I agree with Mr. Tony Blair, if you teach students in the K-12 environment what has been
taught in the past, they will not be prepared for the further education (vocational training) or for
secondary education (Hammond, 2014). I feel to prepare our students for the future work force,
technology must be introduced and used in all subject areas. Students must be technologically
References
Department for Education (June, 2013). Teacher’s Standards Guidance for School Leaders,
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665520/Te
achers__Standards.pdf
Kurt, O. & Tingoy, O. (2017). The Acceptance and Use of a Virtual Learning Environment in
Higher Education: An Empirical study in Turkey and the UK. International Journal of