Ann Dearborn Home Learn More Standards Inspiration About the Author
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What Inspired This Project?
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![]() Educational perspective - It is our current reality that teachers must be trained in how to best integrate the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. This is what is going to give our students the best opportunity to succeed in college or the workforce. It is important to remember that many of the jobs that our students will have one day have not even been thought of yet (Darling-Hammond, 2010). As discovered in my research, engaging students with a tech tool embedded in the Common Core standards and 21st Century learning will motivate them as learners. The idea for this project came from my research paper on, "How Do Communication and Collaboration Affect Engagement with Independent Reading?" I noticed that my students were completely disengaged with their nightly reading and having to respond on their reading logs. Can any of you relate to that lack of enthusiasm in your students? Adding the technology piece by using Kidblog.org not only helped with the level of engagement, but also added a collaboration, communication, and critical thinking piece to their nightly homework. The success of this project led me to realize that I wanted to share this information with fellow educators, specifically at my site, so that all teachers can incorporate technology tools to engage students in 21st century skills. It is my plan to bring these lessons and awareness of Common Sense Media, as well as, the national technology standards, to my staff. I hope to share the results of my research in hopes of sparking their interest. I think beginning with our PLC Leadership team will be beneficial to get a team on board, then I hope to be able to share this new knowledge through on-going PL’s on using a digital platform to develop communication and collaboration in the 21st century. The icons to the right, research, design process, support and next steps will take you to more information on my process. ![]() Sociological perspective - This projects has been designed with the staff at Napa Valley Language Academy in mind. I understand that teachers will need to have buy in to these technology standards and digital literacy. They need to see the importance. I will start with a video clip called, “Did you Know 4.0?” to hook my audience. Next, explaining my action research project and showing the positive results will be proof that it works. Engagement with my audience will be key, starting with an activity (scenario) on digital literacy, perhaps something about inappropriate or mean words via texts or email, would be something they could relate to. K and 1st grade teachers may not need digital citizenship as much as digital responsibility before their students start keyboarding. They will need to address responsibility while in the lab and with the ipads.
![]() Technological perspective - Teachers will need to have time to look at the Common Sense Media website and explore the various resources available to them. Teachers will also need a copy of the Common Core Technology Standards so that they can become of aware of what is expected at their grade level. In their grade level teams they can start by deciding what is the most important standard to start with and make a plan to implement. The expectation will not be to implement all standards at once. The process of implementing the tech standards will also involve the technology teacher. After these are in place we can begin to explore web tools such as Keyboarding without Tears, Kahoot, Kidblog, Piktochart, etc. Chrome books and/or idpads will be available for students. Band with within the district and accessibility to computers will also be factors in making this successful in the 21st Century classroom.
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