technology 3

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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CHAPTER 2

Digital-Age Teaching and the ISTE Standards for Students

EVERY GENERATION OF TEACHERS—and students—has faced the question about what students need to know and be able to do at the end of the K–12 educational system. Expressed simply, we want young people to mature into responsible adults who live satisfying lives because they have the skills to support themselves and the dispositions to treat others well. How these mature, responsible adults should develop is not simple to describe. An even more complicated problem for educators is how these ideal adults can be nurtured and encouraged, because children start school with inherent abilities and unique traits. Individuals are shaped by their environments and experiences, so each person matures differently. Educators, even the very best ones, are only a few among many influences in students’ lives.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has crafted a description for a model digital-age citizen through the ISTE Standards for Students. Seven general categories describe what students need to know and be able to do to be digital citizens in a changing world. The ISTE Student Standards complement state and national standards and describe the skills and dispositions we want all students to have, even when they are not using technology. Digital tools enhance students’ opportunities to practice the skills and dispositions described in the ISTE Student Standards.

Just as teachers use Common Core or district standards to write academic goals in lesson plans, they need to add technology goals for each lesson based on the ISTE Student Standards. For each unit of study and each technology-based activity, teachers should know and monitor the ISTE standards being developed or practiced. All teachers must seek ways to support students’ growth in all the ISTE Student Standard learner domains.

Also, because the technology standards apply over the K–12 spectrum, implementation of the standards differs among grade levels. Foundational skills at the elementary level should be reinforced and expanded at the secondary level. By high school, students should experience considerable freedom to choose digital devices and applications for meeting instructional expectations. ISTE has provided an interactive webpage with clickable key terms in the standards and the indicators (iste.org/standards/for-students).

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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As you read explanations of the ISTE Student Standards, keep the following guiding questions in mind:

What lessons do I currently teach that help students meet this standard?

How can I revise lessons to better incorporate the technology standards?

ISTE Standards for Students Standard 1. Empowered Learner Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

This standard addresses technology integration as an integral part of students’ learning. When students set learning goals, within the parameters of units of instruction, they use what they know about digital tools to build and demonstrate competency in the content of the unit.

1a. Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.

Teachers often post learning goals in their classrooms. Yet, a teacher’s goal is an instructional intent and not necessarily the students’ desire. Asking students to catalog what they already know, develop awareness of yet-unanswered questions, and plan how they will master the content puts learning in students’ control. Active learning happens when students know the learning target of a unit and then take responsibility for what they still need to learn. Students can leverage digital tools as resources and can reflect on their learning processes in digital applications such as Padlet (padlet.com) or blogs.

1b. Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.

Digital tools make interactions among peers, mentors, and experts accessible to any learning community. What would be helpful is for teachers in a school to collaboratively agree on services or applications to be used across grade levels, subject areas, or even the whole school. This enables students to build familiarity with learning environments and develop customized networks.

Teachers at any grade level using Google Classroom can easily connect students with their classroom peers. For younger students, broader networks can be developed through protected sites such as Edmodo (edmodo.com) or Google+ (plus.google.com).

Secondary teachers have access to popular social networking sites, including Facebook and MeWe (mewe.com), for increasing students’ networking opportunities.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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Free services such as Skype in the Classroom (education.microsoft.com/skype-in-the- classroom/overview) or Zoom (zoom.us) can be used for video conferencing with content experts or classrooms around the world.

1c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

Feedback can be as ordinary as spellcheck or margin notes on documents. It can also be solicited as comments in a blog or emails from experts in a content area. Computerized assessments may provide feedback as adaptive adjustments or standardized scoring. Many teachers will find their everyday practices address this indicator for students.

1d. Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

This statement pushes against the concept of teaching students to use specific software or hardware and encourages treating technology skills as tools for doing work. Consider teaching students how to use a ruler. Instruction on the use of a ruler is short and always connected to students doing the work of measurement with the tool of a ruler. When students graduate from rulers to yardsticks, they do not require new instruction on how to measure; we expect them to apply their measuring skills to new settings to accomplish new tasks.

Technology skills should be approached in the same way. Students should be able to use their knowledge of technology to generate new ideas, products, and processes with technology. They apply what they already know about how technologies work to new digital settings to accomplish meaningful work.

All students come to school with funds of knowledge based on their life experiences outside school. Often those experiences include knowledge of digital tools. Many toddlers have used their parents’ phones and tablet devices; by elementary age, children may have had a lot of digital experience—or none. Whether students bring digital knowledge with them to the classroom or receive instruction at school, technology-based assignments should tap into their knowledge of technology to generate new ideas, products, and processes across digital settings. For instance, students who have learned to use a digital camera and digitally insert pictures into programs can apply that knowledge to a number of digital platforms for book reviews, brochures, presentations, digital stories, and other products.

Standard 2. Digital Citizen Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

Of all the standards, I consider this one the most critical for every teacher to address multiple times every year. Because so many students use technology, including accessing

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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the internet, even before they enter elementary school, teachers must start addressing these values in kindergarten or earlier. Child protection laws and district filtering policies protect students from many online threats while at school, but students are often vulnerable when they use computers at home. Even within the confines of protected spaces and class- room use, students can violate other students’ privacy, erase or edit files, and treat peers poorly. Conversations about digital citizenship should happen in both formal internet safety lessons and informal teachable moments. Google has developed Interland (beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en/interland), an online adventure game on digital safety for Grades 3–5. Fewer resources have been developed for secondary students. Teachers could invite a professional (i.e., a district attorney, police officer, or social worker) who works with internet safety as a guest speaker or build a folder of relevant news articles on which to base discussions.

2a. Students cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.

Students understand the value of a good reputation, so leverage this understanding to talk about digital identities. Be on the lookout for news articles highlighting the permanence of digital actions—you can not only initiate a good conversation, but also engage students in reflecting about their own digital reputations. This ties in nicely with conversations about cyberbullying as well.

2b. Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.

One of the biggest areas of concern under this standard is cyberbullying. My analysis of published research on cyberbullying among teens revealed widely varying rates of cyberbullying (17% to 70%). The variation may be related to how cyberbullying was defined. The Cyberbullying Research Center (cyberbullying.org/facts) indicated that the average rate of victimization among secondary students was 21%. In their research, cyberbullying was defined as repeatedly threatening, mistreating, harassing, or making fun of another person on purpose online or while using a cell phone or other electronic device.

In one of the few studies of cyberbullying among elementary students, Elizabeth Englander found that 30% of fifth graders admitted being cyberbullies and 46% reported being a cyberbully victim. Many repeated instances of cyberbullying reported by elementary students happened through Facebook, email, or texting. Teachers cannot ignore even young students’ need to know about safe, legal, and ethical behavior when using technology.

Young people rarely realize the potential harm or the subsequent consequences of their behavior. This issue could easily be used as an authentic problem for students to research among their peers (Standard 3).

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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2c. Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

Teachers sometimes ask when students should learn about digital copyright. Start in kindergarten to teach about ownership of intellectual and creative property. When students begin online searches for information or pictures, require them to give credit to their sources. Make sure students know their original works are intellectual property as well. At the secondary level, students should master more complex issues of copyright, including the levels of permissions in Creative Commons.

2d. Students manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-collection technology used to track their navigation online.

It’s difficult to teach elementary students about strong passwords when so often their passwords for school accounts are neither secure nor secret. But young students often sign up for game sites and social media sites, so they should be taught how to construct a strong password and why such actions are necessary. Of course, digital privacy goes beyond creating passwords to include thoughtful awareness of potential dangers in online communications and increasing awareness of how websites collect and use online behaviors to target individuals for advertising and other purposes.

Standard 3. Knowledge Constructor Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

Many of the skills listed in this standard fit within the realm of information literacy. Students ask meaningful questions, critically evaluate resources, and develop creative exhibits for disseminating their knowledge.

Traditionally, school librarians have addressed information literacy skills with or without classroom teachers’ involvement. Unfortunately, many schools have lost their librarians to budget shortfalls. Educators now recognize that, even in schools with full-time librarians, information literacy must be a whole-school effort. Building research skills extends beyond library walls.

Most classroom teachers have received little training on teaching research and information fluency skills, and few schools have identified ways to teach these skills most beneficially. To be effective, research skills need to be addressed and built cumulatively over the K–12 school years. Although information literacy is not the focus of this book, resources for teaching aspects of information literacy are provided in the next chapter.

3a. Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.

Students need to define the task they want to accomplish and plan strategies for finding the information. Students can create their own research questions for inquiry. Good

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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questions may have no answer, which requires students to propose an answer, or many possible answers, which requires students to choose a stance and support it. Students must determine where they may find information that will enable them to become expert enough to present an argument for their answers. The development of the question and the plan for finding resources does not necessarily require the use of technology. However, if the inquiry is being done collaboratively, technology can be used to capture each person’s ideas most effectively.

3b. Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.

When students used only printed library resources, selecting and evaluating information sources was less important than it is now with easy access to online resources. Consider how an online search requires complex skills to eliminate advertising, sponsored results, and irrelevant content. Unless teachers explicitly teach students how to create web searches and critically evaluate search results, many children will waste considerable time clicking through interesting and distracting websites with little or no relevance. I observed such behavior in many secondary classrooms, especially among students who could ill afford to waste time. Review search skills before any research project. One-time lessons are not sufficient.

Many students also struggle to understand that online information might be slanted, inaccurate, or entirely bogus. Explicit instruction on evaluating sources is essential; several of the annotated resources in the following chapter address that issue.

3c. Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

Students can gather resources, finished products, and other artifacts into personal portfolios in Seesaw (web.seesaw.me). By high school, they should be able to manage assistive tools for citations, annotations, outlines, and notes to organize their ideas and artifacts. Teach students to use an aggregation application such as Padlet (padlet.com) as a brainstorming tool or resource collector.

3d. Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

Students can be passionate advocates for justice when they have opportunities to identify authentic problems and propose solutions, particularly when those problems have local connections. When students look at their schools and neighborhoods with a critical lens, they often find issues, such as bullying, ADA access, or dangerous traffic flow patterns, they would like to tackle.

Students bring different levels of community knowledge to any project, and frequently one student will see an aspect of a solution that others missed. Sometimes what looks like an obvious solution turns out to affect others in unacceptable ways, and students learn

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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about compromise. Peers in foreign countries can reveal different perspectives on world problems, which adds an extra layer of complexity to problem-solving. Teaching students to consider perspectives outside their own prepares them for living and competing in a global community.

Standard 4. Innovative Designer Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

Design thinking has often been connected (at least in people’s minds) to the push for STEM education. Yes, scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians use design thinking, but so do artists, architects, and archaeologists. At its core, design thinking refers to identifying a problem and creating a potential solution.

Teachers can incorporate design thinking into all content areas. For ideas, visit the Cooper Hewitt website (dx.cooperhewitt.org) and search the lesson plans database on the Educator Resources page. Projects will not always require digital tools for prototyping, but certainly documenting the design process will be easier with technology.

4a. Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

A web search for design thinking will produce a number of visual models.

Although the visuals and terms may vary slightly, the values of empathy, collaboration, and iteration are common across the models. Choose a model of the design cycle, preferably schoolwide, to guide students in design projects.

4b. Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.

Brainstorming, planning, and organizing are easier with technology tools. For students age 13 or older or with parental permission for younger students, introduce Dotstorming (dotstorming.com) or Lino (en.linoit.com) as a class activity. Then student teams can choose their own tools for their collaborative work. Or, students may prefer using a mind- mapping tool such as Popplet (popplet.com, geared to children under 13), Bubbl.us (bubbl.us, not free), Mindomo (mindomo.com, not free), Stormboard (stormboard.com, currently free for education), or Exobrain (exobrain.co). For calculating risk, try out Something Pop (somethingpop.com).

4c. Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.

This step of the design process may also be done with or without technology. One critical piece of design is not just testing, but documenting the test results and changes. Tracking this with digital tools is easy.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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4d. Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

Unlike other indicators in the standards, this indicator would be hard to assess formally. Consider it a goal, a desirable outcome. Having students reflect on the design process, in writing, through a podcast, or in a video could nudge students toward building these skills.

Standard 5. Computational Thinker Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

Although this standard has a focus similar to that of the previous standard—problem-solving —the types of problems in Standard 5 are more often quantitative. Some computation processes are easily manipulated or modeled with technology tools. When appropriate, students should practice on and gain mastery of such tools.

5a. Students formulate problem definitions suited for technology-assisted methods such as data analysis, abstract models and algorithmic thinking in exploring and finding solutions.

Defining a problem is always the first step of problem-solving. What am I trying to find out or do? What do I know? What is unknown? How can I go about finding a solution? This indicator suggests that an additional question would be: What digital tools might help me as I look for a solution?

5b. Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.

Data analysis permeates computational problem-solving. One way to help students understand the importance of data and analysis is through participation in global science investigations for citizen scientists, such as those offered through Journey North: A Global Study of Wildlife Migration and Seasonal Change (learner.org/jnorth), The Cornell Lab of Ornithology project (birds.cornell.edu/page.aspx?pid=1478), or Barcoding Life’s Matrix (studentdnabarcoding.org), for high school students.

Sometimes the representation of computational data is best supported through free virtual manipulative sites. These sites often require Flash or Java, which may affect their usability on some student devices. Virtual manipulative sites include the McGraw-Hill Education Manipulatives (glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html, through Grade 4); Math Playground (mathplayground.com/games.html, through Grade 6); SolveMe Mobiles (solveme.edc.org/Mobiles.html#about/parents, algebraic thinking); and National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html, through Grade 12).

At the elementary level, graphing can be supported through NCES Create a Graph (nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph). As a quick, fun activity, my students and I collected

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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spur-of-the-moment data, such as the number of pockets on our clothing, favorite seasons, and school transportation choices, for graphing. As students advance through school, they can use spreadsheets for data sets and analysis and, eventually, free online graphing tools such as GraphFree (graphfree.com) or GeoGebra (geogebra.org/classic/calculator).

5c. Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.

Students often want to skip this step and get to an answer. They don’t understand the learning happens on the way to an answer. Whether they are drawing a picture to represent their thinking, creating a ratio table, or drawing a complex system, students need to talk about the thinking that led to their representation and how it will lead to an answer. One effective strategy teachers have used to highlight the thinking process is to take pictures of students’ representations and project the visuals for the class to see while the problem solver explains the reasoning.

5d. Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.

Coding provides excellent practice in automation and thinking sequentially. Free coding applications using drag-and-drop commands have proliferated enough so even kindergarteners can begin coding. Hopscotch (gethopscotch.com), Daisy the Dinosaur (itunes.apple.com/us/app/daisy-the-dinosaur/id490514278?mt=8), and Cargo-bot (twolivesleft.com/CargoBot) are three iPad-only applications. Code Monkey (playcodemonkey.com), Code Monster (crunchzilla.com/code-monster), and Code Academy (codecademy.com) are free and suitable for older elementary students. With coding experience in the elementary school, secondary students can advance their skills through programs such as Google CS First (csfirst.withgoogle.com), App Inventor (appinventor.org), or Thimble (thimble.mozilla.org/en-US).

Standard 6. Creative Communicator Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

Communication projects may be the backbone of educational technology use. From the beginning, teachers saw value in having students express themselves through text, pictures, and video. Improvements in digital tools have transformed what students can do creatively to communicate their ideas.

6a. Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

Technology tools can deliver information and ideas to broad audiences. This requires more sophistication in communication skills than typically had been promoted in classrooms. Students need explicit instruction on how to communicate effectively through

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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the projects they create, whether they use text, audio, visuals, or video. When teachers are in a rush to get a project done so the class can move on, it’s tempting to skip quality control. Yet, the time spent front-loading instruction on what makes quality communication will benefit students throughout their lifetimes.

6b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.

Allow yourself to think beyond the fine arts as examples of original works. Yes, students should express themselves through digitally based art, music, and creative writing, but these are not the only ways to define original works. Imagine students creating posters, multimedia slideshows, videos, infographics, and comic strips. Asking them to use SuperLame (superlame.com) to add dialogue bubbles to a photograph, such as an historical photo from the Library of Congress, provides an outlet for their originality in the form of personal or group expression.

Many tools support original works. Students can create multimedia projects in Adobe Spark (spark.adobe.com) or platform-specific tools. For music creation, students can try Looplabs (looplabs.com/beta, registration required), Musicshake (eng.musicshake.com/create), or Audiotool (audiotool.com).

BigHugeLabs (bighugelabs.com) offers free utilities for displaying pictures. Have students synthesize information from a novel or science project on a movie poster or magazine cover. Or use an infographic to convey results from an investigation with the Infogram (infogram.com, basic is free, subscription-based) tool.

While elementary students should choose from a couple of digital tools for creative projects, secondary students can manage more freedom to choose the technologies they will use. Be prepared for students to use resources they’ve discovered and explored outside of school, though.

6c. Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.

Multimedia has opened the door to many ways to present ideas. Students can create Animoto (animoto.com/education/classroom) videos, especially now that Animoto offers free accounts to teachers for up to 50 students. With Timeline (timeline.knightlab.com), students can blend text, embedded videos, and photos to communicate a perspective about a historic event. Secondary English and history teachers may want to explore Prism (pedagogy-toolkit.org/tools/PRISM.html), a method that allows multiple people to highlight a text and then aggregates the interpretation into a visual representation.

Students can create graphic models with drawing and graphing programs. Simulations, whether students participate in them and reflect on their learning or create them as games, will engage students in higher-level thinking about content.

6d. Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

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With technology, students have options for presenting their work and inviting comments from others. When one group of fourth graders was required to present a science project to their peers, they embedded original (and funny) videos in a slideshow so only one student would have to stand in front of the class. They not only met the requirements of the assignment, but they also enjoyed the process, a boon for the students who had stage fright. In several secondary schools, students have conducted oral history projects to document war veterans’ experiences, school history, and community events. They have presented their work on websites, in assemblies honoring their interviewees, and in videos.

Publishing or presenting to authentic audiences encourages students to be thoughtful about their creative works. Sixth graders used a variety of digital tools to teach third graders about natural disasters. A third-grade class created informative brochures about their school to promote open enrollment. Secondary students created digital portfolios of their graphic arts projects for college auditions. The audience influences both how and what gets included in any presentation.

Standard 7. Global Collaborator Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

One challenge for educators is to build empathy in students. Empathy is the capacity to accept and understand perspectives different from one’s own. So many students live isolated lives—even when their neighborhoods and schools are diverse (and few are), their social lives are limited to people just like them. Teachers can broaden students’ experiences by pairing them with academic peers from different cultural backgrounds. I’m using the term cultural broadly as well. Culture may refer to ethnic, national, and linguistic diversity, and also to differences in ability levels (i.e., students who are academically accelerated or challenged), background knowledge and experiences, physical abilities, and gender orientation. Technology tools can facilitate collaboration within and across school walls.

7a. Students use digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, engaging with them in ways that broaden mutual understanding and learning.

Many students lack the life experiences to imagine that people in other cultures live, behave, and believe differently. Online collaborations create authentic ways for students to learn about places they have never experienced. For instance, a cross-national sharing between elementary schools in different climates revealed that students in one school had questions about snow, which they had never seen, while the partner students were trying to imagine open-air, year-round schools. Minor differences are not minor to students who have never been exposed to any differences at all. Given that most students will, as adults, work in international markets, the more exposure they receive to different cultural patterns during school years, the more successfully they will make the transition as adults.

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7b. Students use collaborative technologies to work with others, including peers, experts or community members, to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints.

Teachers have found an abundance of ways to involve their students in work with other students around the globe. These connections do not need to be expensive; many tools, such as Skype and wikis, are free to teachers. Finding partners is not difficult, either; teachers can use professional development platforms to put out calls for collaborators. In fact, responses are often so fast and numerous that teachers have to sift through a list of potential partners. The more specific teachers can be in their requests for partners, the more likely they will find the right collaborators. What may be difficult in global communities is maintaining teacher-to-teacher communications when the school year gets busy or coordinating projects that meet the curricular goals for everyone involved.

Don’t be afraid to use your networks to find experts in the curricular units you teach as well. My daughter who is an engineer loves the opportunities to interact with students about becoming an engineer through online video calls and in-person visits. Many retirees would be honored to share their expertise. During a third-grade immigration unit, community members shared their immigration experiences. Even if immigration isn’t in your curriculum, with the increasing diversity in schools, students could benefit from accessing Immigrant Stories (immigrantstories.umn.edu), an online collection of three- to five-minute videos curated by the University of Minnesota. Better yet, invite students and their families to create their own stories on the site.

7c. Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

No one disputes that learning to work in teams is a desired life skill. In many organizations, digital teamwork is the standard operating procedure. Students can work with teammates in the same room or work at a distance. They can know one another well or be virtual teammates. They can even work with virtual mentors who are experts in a field. The goal is to give students multiple K–12 experiences working digitally with others in authentic partnerships.

7d. Students explore local and global issues and use collaborative technologies to work with others to investigate solutions.

The variety of local and global projects available to teachers is astounding. So many projects sound so good that it’s hard to narrow down a choice. But, at least at first, temper your enthusiasm. Look for projects that are short, timed well for your schedule, and likely to be successful. Mystery Skype (education.microsoft.com/skype-in-the- classroom/mystery-skype) is a one-shot experience tied into geography and map skills. Consider the Global Read Aloud (theglobalreadaloud.com), which offers a selection of books for paired classes to read and discuss. Or, try out projects from the PenPals Schools (penpalschools.com).

If you’re not ready to tap into global projects, consider inviting a local leader to talk about

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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a local issue. Students can research the problem, collaborate on possible solutions, and present their ideas to the local community organization. A local success can trigger interest in a more global issue on a similar topic.

Start small. Build on success. Connect across the globe. Build leaders.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-09-26 01:09:53.

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