Technology Use in the Classroom: a standards-based course
ISTE Technology Standards for Students
ISTE's NETS for Students (NETS•S) are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge students need to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly global and digital world. Simply being able to use technology is no longer enough. Today's students need to be able to use technology to analyze, learn, and explore. Digital age skills are vital for preparing students to work, live, and contribute to the social and civic fabric of their communities.
Common Core State Standards Educational standards describe what students should know and be able to do in each subject in each grade. In California, the State Board of Education decides on the standards for all students, from kindergarten through high school.
Since 2010, 45 states have adopted the same standards for English and math. These standards are called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Having the same standards helps all students get a good education, even if they change schools or move to a different state. Teachers, parents, and education experts designed the standards to prepare students for success in college and the workplace.
The California Department of Education helps schools make sure that all students are meeting the standards.
Below you will find information about the standards and the CCSS-related activities taking place in California.
This class has been developed to teach basic educational technology applications to students. The Strands will be: Introduction to Keyboarding, Word Processing Skills, PowerPoint Presentations,Using Technology to do Classroom assignments, and Visual Illustration of Academic Understanding. The student work will be collected in an Electronic Portfolio, which will be available on this website, in anonymous form, so that students can share their work with the world.
Students will demonstrate their ability to use the computer keyboard as an "input device," and will be comprised of instruction in the Home Keys, touch typing, and keyboard shortcuts. There will be short instructional videos, and drill & practice games, to help students attain basic fluency in using the keyboard. For those who have access to an iPad, using a Touch Screen keyboard will also be explored.
Once students have gained some fluency in using the computer keyboard, they will be seeing some short instructional videos, plus be given short writing assignments, in order to assist them in developing the usage of word processing as a way of presenting written work in digital form. They will also be instructed on how to use file names and folders to organize their written work for retrieval and printing. Printing, font usage, and formatting of a written document will also be covered.
After Word Processing comes the use of presentation software so that written work may be illustrated, formatted for public speaking, and presented in manageable sound/sight bites, in order to assist them in publishing/sharing their written work. Students will be instructed in two programs: Microsoft PowerPoint, and if anyone has a Mac at home, they will also be able to take a short course in Keynote.
This segment of the course will consist of using Word Processing, Word Art, construction of tables, charts, and graphs, in order to present projects, experiments, or investigations of themes, so that students will have a coherent understanding of the varieties of programs that might be involved in doing a presentation or posterboard of academic understanding. It will also include a short course on movie making, as a way of doing an audio-visual report.
Here, students will be given some of their other classroom assignments, and they will demonstrate their ability to choose methods by which to achieve their assignment's goal, and get approval to put together projects using the skills they have learned in our technology class. By this time, they will have had multiple assignments done that parallel their other classes, but now they will learn how to negotiate the use of alternative forms of assessment, and getting teacher approval for these types of projects.
Here is a WebQuest about the Life of Leonardo DaVinci, put together by Ms. Hartooni, which will be one of the class assignments we work on, in December, 2012.
This will be used to train students for better internet searching, as students develop projects, reports, and answer questions. The training, for the most part, is free!
Writing Prompts using Pictures
Writing Prompts using pictures Have you noticed that picture prompts are popping up on high stakes tests? Wouldn’t it be great to have a bunch of practice prompts to use with your students?
They are easy and fun to make. All you need is a computer, the Internet, a word processing program, and a picture prompt-in-a-box template with easy directions to follow.
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