ISTE Standards and Resources

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter,

teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate

experiences that advance student learning,

creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face

and virtual environments.

a. Promote, support, and model creative

and innovative thinking and inventiveness

Name: bubbl.us

Link: https://bubbl.us/

Description: Bubble.us is an online resource that allows students and teachers an easy way to brainstorm ideas and create virtual concept maps. This can also been used collaboratively where teachers and students can work together to brainstorm. This allows several individuals to contribute their ideas to the creation of one concept map. This is a good way to share ideas.

Grade: High School

b. Engage students in exploring real-world issues

and solving authentic problems using digital tools

and resources

Name: Kidtopia

Link: http://www.kidtopia.info/

Description: Kidtopia is an excellent website for elementary age students to locate information. It is easy to use and it provides links to safe websites. This prevents younger students from using search engine sites such as Google, Bing, etc. where they could potentially come across information that would be unsafe or unreliable.

Grade: Elementary

c. Promote student reflection using collaborative

tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual

understanding and thinking, planning, and

creative processes

Name: Slideshare

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/

Description: Slideshare allows teachers and students to post presentations online and share. This can then be viewed on the web at any time. This enables teachers and students access to view not only their peers work on the related subject but also the work of others around the world. As a future teacher, I found a wide variety of great presentations that suggested many helpful tools. Viewing others’ presentations can also provide ideas that spark you or your students imagination when creating your own work. 

Grade: Middle/High School

d. Model collaborative knowledge construction by

engaging in learning with students, colleagues,

and others in face-to-face and virtual environments

Name: Edmodo

Link: http://www.edmodo.com/

Description: Edmodo is a social network site specifically designed for use in education. It is a safe way classrooms can interact together via the web. Teachers and students can create their own profile. Teachers can post assignments and important messages. Students can post questions and share ideas with peers.

Grade: Middle/High School 

2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic

learning experiences and assessment incorporating

contemporary tools and resources to maximize content

learning in context and to develop the knowledge,

skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS·S.

a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that

incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student

learning and creativity

Name: Teacher Tap

Link: http://eduscapes.com/tap/tap2.htm

Description: This website provides a large amount of links to internet resources for both teachers and students. It classifies the links into categories to help individuals easily locate exactly what they are searching for. It can be used as a reference leading to helpful educational sites and online tools.

Grades: All Grades

b. Develop technology-enriched learning environments

that enable all students to pursue their individual

curiosities and become active participants in setting

their own educational goals, managing their own

learning, and assessing their own progress

Name: Wordpress

Link: http://wordpress.com/

Description: Wordpress is a website that allows individuals to create their own personal blogs. Students can use this digital tool to publish their own creative works. Students can also view each others work which can inspire creativity and peer critique.

Grade: Middle/High School

c. Customize and personalize learning activities

to address students’ diverse learning styles,

working strategies, and abilities using digital tools

and resources

Name: CAST

Link: http://cast.org/learningtools/index.html

Description: This site is designed by CAST, a nonprofit research and development program that works to create effective learning experiences for all students using the Universal Design for Learning. It offers several free online tools for student, teachers, and parents to use. Some of these tools include: Book Builder that allows teachers and students to create their own individual books, Science Writer that guides students through the creation of a science report, and a Strategy Tutor that helps teachers and students doing online research.

Grade: All Grades

d. Provide students with multiple and varied formative

and summative assessments aligned with content

and technology standards and use resulting data

to inform learning and teaching

Name: StudyBlue

Link: http://www.studyblue.com/online-flashcards/

Description: StudyBlue is an online tool that allows students to create their own digital flashcards that can help them when reviewing for test or quizzes. There is also a StudyBlue app that allows students to view and study their flashcards at any time, any place.

Grades: Middle/High School

3. Model Digital Age Work and Learning

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work

processes representative of an innovative professional

in a global and digital society.

 a. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the

transfer of current knowledge to new technologies

and situations

Name: PBS Learning Media

Link: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource

Description: This site is offered by PBS. It allows teachers to create an account and access a wide variety of educational resources. Students can also create an account and view a wide assortment of educational games and activities.

Grades: All Grades

 b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents,

and community members using digital tools

and resources to support student success

and innovation

Name: Twitter

Link: https://twitter.com/

Desciption: Twitter is a form of a social networking site that allows individuals to post ideas, opinions, quotes, etc. using no more than 140 characters. Essentially it is a “mini-blog”. Users are allowed to comment on others posts and so forth. This could be serve as an additional way teachers, students, and parents could share ideas.

Grades: Middle/High School

 c. Communicate relevant information and ideas

effectively to students, parents, and peers using

a variety of digital age media and formats

Name: Skype

Link: http://www.skype.com/en/

Description: Skype is an online tool that allows individuals to communicate with one another visually and audibly. Through the use of a microphone and webcam, individuals can view and speak to one another from any location (with internet access) at any time. Teacher, students, and parents can use this tool to communicate and conference in situations where they are not physically able to meet. 

Grades: All Grades

 d. Model and facilitate effective use of current and

emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate,

and use information resources to support research

and learning

Name: Wolfram Alpha

Link: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Description: Wolfram Alpha is an online tool is a computational knowledge engine. It allows students to submit equations and calculations. It will then provide the answer and an explanation.

Grades: Middle/High School

 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Teachers understand local and global societal

issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital

culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in

their professional practices.

 a. Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical

use of digital information and technology, including

respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the

appropriate documentation of sources

Name: EasyBib

Link: http://www.easybib.com/

Description: This site provides free citations that teachers and students alike can use when they need to site borrowed sources. You can type in the name of a book or a link to a website and this site will generate a citation. You also have a variety of formats (MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, etc.)

Grades: Middle/High School

 b. Address the diverse needs of all learners by using

learner-centered strategies providing equitable access

to appropriate digital tools and resources

Name: flickr

Link: http://www.flickr.com/

Description: Flickr is a website that allows users to easily share photos online. Teachers could have students post photos on this site for a project. This would allow students to easily view each others’ photos. This could be beneficial for visual learners as well as students who prefer to express themselves beyond the average means school usually allows.

Grades: Middle/High School

 c. Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible

social interactions related to the use of technology

and information

Name: VoiceThread

Link: http://voicethread.com/

Description: VoiceThread allows individuals to create slides that contain comments in the form of audio or text. The unique aspect about VoiceThread is that it enables individuals watching the slides to additionally add their own comments. This is an excellent tool for teachers and students alike to share ideas and collaborate with one another.

Grade: Middle/High School

 d. Develop and model cultural understanding and

global awareness by engaging with colleagues

and students of other cultures using digital age

communication and collaboration tools

Name: Poll Everywhere

Link: http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Description: This website allows teachers to conduct polls with instant results within the classroom. The teacher can create their own poll on the website. Then the students use their cell phones to text their response. The results are shown immediately.

Grades: Middle/High School

 5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

Teachers continuously improve their professional

practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit

leadership in their school and professional

community by promoting and demonstrating

the effective use of digital tools and resources.

 a. Participate in local and global learning communities

to explore creative applications of technology to

improve student learning

Name: Pinterest

Link: http://pinterest.com/

Description: The Pinterest website is equivalent to an online pin board where individuals can post images and links found anywhere online. It is an excellent website where individuals can share and view creative and inventive ideas about an array of topics including education.

Grades: All Grades

 b. Exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of

technology infusion, participating in shared decision

making and community building, and developing the

leadership and technology skills of others

Name: EtherPad

Link: http://etherpad.org/

Description: EtherPad allows individuals to work on the same document at the same time. This would be beneficial for students working on a group project. It would also be a good tool for educators who are collaborating.

Grades: All Grades

 c. Evaluate and reflect on current research and

professional practice on a regular basis to make

effective use of existing and emerging digital tools

and resources in support of student learning

Name: Survey Monkey

Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Description: Survey Monkey allows individuals to create their own surveys online. These could be used to survey teachers opinions and techniques in the classroom.

Grades: Middle/High School

 d. Contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self renewal

of the teaching profession and of their

school and community

Name: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/top-20-teacher-blogs

Description: Offered by the popular Scholastic Company, this resource is designed specifically for teachers. It offers twenty different links to blogs of other teachers. In these blogs, the teachers discuss their own classroom experiences. This can be an encouragement for teachers and an inspiration for them to create their own blogs to share their teaching experiences.

Grades: All Grades

 

 

 

 

Media Technolofy Reflection

Get Creative in School with Digital Media

http://www.guardian.co.uk/classroom-innovation/creative-schools-digital-media

This article was written by Julie Nightingale and discusses the use of digital media in UK classrooms. Because this article is based off UK classrooms, the statistics do not necessarily correlate to American classrooms. However, much of the information in the article can be applicable to American classrooms. Nightingale claims that the creative capacities of students need to be addressed more within the classroom. She says this is so important because employment in the creative industries has steadily increased even in the difficult economic times. Nightingale believes that incorporating media technology into the classroom can help flourish the student’s creativity. At a school in Britain, students spend entire school days learning how to use video, animation, and digital imaging. The teachers claim that the incorporation of digital media into the classroom has helped all different types of students flourish. One of the teachers said, "One student, one of the lowest ability boys I've ever taught, couldn't really read and write properly and staff spent more time talking to him about his behavior than his work. He particularly flourished when I gave him control of the tools and told him that he could actually teach himself.” The goal of this school is to incorporate creativity into the curriculum and connect it to real-world applications. The way they incorporate creativity is through the use of technology. The school has been manipulated to form something like a town with student-ran companies, a town council (student council, and even a bank. In one project, one of the student-ran companies had to sponsor a charity. Through the use of digital media, the students created commercials and a website and things of this sort to set up a campaign for the charity.

I found this article to be very interesting. I agree that creativity needs to be addressed more frequently within classrooms. I believe that it is a disadvantage of the students to decrease funding for art classes. Unfortunately, this is often the case for schools who are receiving a decrease in funds. For this reason, I do believe that core subject teachers need to incorporate creativity more within their classrooms. However, I do not necessarily believe that creativity is something that can be taught. I believe that all students have their own unique abilities. Some students may succeed in academics, some in arts, some in athletics, and so forth. However, it is the school’s responsibility to supply students with the resources to help them succeed. I believe that incorporating digital media into the classroom is an excellent way for students to combine their interests with their academics. Digital media allows students to explore various topics through a wide array of different resources. This also can allow students to guide their own learning and creates a more authentic learning environment. For this reason, I plan on incorporating projects like the one described above in my own classroom.