Meeting Technology Standards

There are five standards described in the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers. These are standards about how to incorporate technology into the classroom and increase digital learning. Below is a collection of my ideas about how teachers can meet these standards.

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

• A good way to engage students in using technology to learn about real-world issues is to teach children how to search newpapers online. Start a lesson by bring in a recent newspaper. Then have children pick articles out of the paper and cut them out. After that, use a search engine to see how many articles the students chose that you can find on the internet. If possible, your computer screen could be put on a projector for the entire class to easily see.
• Create a class website that allows posted questions. Teach students how to log into the website and post questions for both their peers and the teacher. Questions can even be asked while they are at home!
• Yodio can be used to inspire children to read aloud. Children can be very inspired to read aloud knowing they are recording themselves and will have the ability to let their parents listen to their recordings at home or even over their lunch break.
  

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessment

• Student Surveys and math. Use spreadsheets to quickly make graphs about topics related to the students. Teach students how to input answers into a spreadsheet. For multiple choice questions, students can enter their answers and then quickly be able to analyze a pie graph created by the spreadsheet. This could be a very engaging way to teach students graphs without having to use examples from a textbook.
  
• Students can also input their homework answers into a spreadsheet. This could be another way to engage more students, plus it can give teachers instant, in-class assessment about their students' understanding of concepts.
• Students can create podcasting to see if they can explain learned concepts.
  

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

• Create a class website. Invite students to post questions and add information to the site. Children can learn through Vygotsky's theories of social development by asking each other questions and responding on a class site. Then the teacher can bring up topics for discussion from the website when in class.
• A class website can also be a great tool for parent collaboration. A class site can be a great way for parents to be informed about what their children are doing in class. The site could also let parents know how they can help their children with class activities.
• Tokbox is another great tool for parent communication. It can be used to make an online video of yourself...perfect for a short message about what the class is going to be doing next week!
  

4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

• Create a private class website. This can be done with google sites. Discuss what is appropriate to post and what is not. Teach students that what is posted on the internet is available for everyone to see. Practice identifying postings that are not appropriate, such as posts including last names. Then have the students make appropriate posts to the cite. Be sure to have parent consent. It may be a good idea to make sure posts are approved by the teacher.
  

5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

• This can be done with the class website as well. Discuss any issues that arise with the entire class.
• The class can use Skype to speak with an expert in the field. Children could potentially ask the author of a children's book questions immediately after reading it. The author could even read his/her book from home to the class!