New Tech Standards & Requirements

"Standards-based education is the process of basic teaching, learning, and assessment that focuses on national, state, and local educational standards. Academic Content Standards are statements of what students are expected to know and be able to do at specified grade levels." Technology is one of the tools students have at their disposal as they engage in the learning process. Classrooms need to adjust to include these technologies into useful teaching strategies so students may reach the Oregon Educational Technology Standards. The new Oregon Educational Technology Standards were adopted in 2010, and they include:

• Creativity and Innovation
• Communication and Collaboration
• Research and Information Fluency
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
• Digital Citizenship
• Technology Operations and Concepts

The three standards that are most significant to me are:

• Creativity and Innovation: Students will be able to demonstrate creative thinking and problem solving skills to develop different products and processes using digital technology.
• Communication and Collaboration: Students will use digital media and environments to communicate across a global community. They will also use digital media to work collaboratively to support their individual learning and contribute to other peoples' learning.
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students will use critical thinking skills to conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make intelligent decisions using the appropriate digital tools and resources.

Some strategies/activities I would implement at my grade levels (Kindergarten-Second Grade) to help accomplish my particular standards would be to:

• Help my students become familiar with different technological devices. For example, I would teach them what a computer is, what the different parts do, and how they can use it to learn.
• Describe to my students different ways technology is used in every day life. I would give them the opportunity to give me examples of when they see technology being used at their own homes.
• Include digital learning games in my classroom to give students a chance to try the products out themselves (Leap Frog, audio books, etc...)
• Try to set up different guest speakers via video chat that may help my students to achieve learning on a certain subject.

The grade levels I am interested in working with will be a little more difficult to implement strategies into because they are so young and are not required to use technology at school but giving them a basic knowledge of computers would be helpful nonetheless. Kids at that age are faced with many opportunities to use digital technology at home so finding a way to include these technologies at school should be a priority. That way, they are more prepared to use the technology when it becomes imperative to learning. A lack of resources, such as computers, for my age of students may be a challenge I face when trying to implement these strategies. Funding, or lack thereof, could also be quite a difficult hurdle to jump. Acquiring bits and pieces at a time may have to be good enough, at first. Also, getting a few digital learning options and using them during center time as a choice for the students would help them all get time to try out those different options out.

Here is a link to the Educational Technology Standards page on the Oregon Department of Education website:

http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=1880