TeachHUB.com: How to Apply Ed Tech Teaching for Common Core Standards

http://www.teachhub.com/teacher-blogging-guide

By: Dr. Katherine McKnight

 

When I was a student, I pounded out papers on an electric typewriter. When I started teaching, the web wasn’t an instant resource. I taught students about note cards and bibliography cards when they researched topics. Those days are long gone (and I am thrilled).

Today, our students gather and digest information via the Internet at amazing speed. I often say that the ways in which we read text, write text, use text and how text affects us has completely changed because we are in the Technology/Information Age.

Common Core State Standards recognize this change and require teachers to adapt. Here is an overview of the CCSS technology expectations and how teachers can begin integrate more technology into engaging teaching and learning activities.

Ed Tech & Common Core State Standards

In response to this reality, the authors of the Common Core State Standards clearly articulate the importance of technology in the standards. Although specific strategies for the integration of technology in curriculum and instruction are not stated, the Standards do articulate skills recognize the reality of the Digital Age.

In the introduction for the Common Core State Standards, the authors outline what college and career readiness in reading, writing, speaking , listening, and language looks like by the time students graduate high school.

Specifically the Standards indicate the specific expectations between technology and career and college readiness:

• They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
• Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums.

It is clear that the technology tools (that are literally at our fingertips) must be integrated into our curriculum and instruction in all grades and content areas.


As we embark on this transition between the previous generation of standards to the Common Core State Standards, we need to consider how to use all of the technology tools that are available to us. Fully integrating technology into curriculum and instruction requires careful planning to ensure that it is not an enhancement for teaching and learning, rather than a distraction.


There are many resources that can support your planning for integration of technology into your classes. Here are some basic and essential tools for instruction that I usually share when teachers are ready to integrate technology into teaching and learning:

Using Blogs to Achieve CCSS Standards

Known in shorthand as blogs, weblogs are web sites that can be easily updated and highly interactive. Since the sites are highly interactive, students are able to send their ideas and work to an audience that goes beyond the classroom.


Since students are encouraged to represent what they know and understand in the CCCSS framework, blogs are a vehicle to meet those expectations.

Using Wikis to Achieve CCSS Standards

From the Hawaiian word, wiki-wiki, which means “quick” in Hawaiian, this web based tool makes it easy for people to work together online to publish and author ideas and information. The most famous example is Wikipedia.


Wikis are a tremendous tool for developing solid organization skills for 21st century researching.

Using Podcasts to Achieve CCSS Standards

There are three kinds of podcasts: audio, visual and video. Audio are similar to radio broadcasts, visual include graphics and images, and video are sometimes called vodcasts or v-casts. These are valuable technology tools in meeting the CCSS because they offer structures to represent what students know and understand through various digital genres.


We are in a new age. Whil I am by no means a “technology geek,” I am learning how to use technology to be an even stronger and more effective literacy teacher.

Take One Tech Tool at a Time

As we transition to CCSS and the role of technology becomes more fully integrated into teaching and learning, I want to remind my fellow educators that it takes time to make this change.


Keep building your knowledge about all of the amazing tools that are available to us in “chunks.” I learn a few tools each month and consider how I can use them for effective teaching and learning activities. In a short time, I know that you will become “wiki-wiki” in connecting technology effectively into your curriculum and instruction and further prepare our students for careers and college in the 21^st century.


How do you intend to use ed tech tools to help your students reach the learning goals set by Common Core State Standards? Share in the comments section!