Oregon Educational Technology Standards

One thing that I noticed right away when I was looking at the new Oregon Diploma: 2012 Essential Skills, is that many of the items (1-5, 7-9) could actually incorporate the technological aspect (#6), as well. If you look at it this way, then meeting this vast array of technology standards seems considerably more doable. We must find ways to integrate technology into more activities at the various grade levels. I am exploring technological applications from a wide scope: Middle school English, Social Studies, & Theater, as well as elementary grades 3-6.

1. Communication & Collaboration/Creativity & Innovation: Students at the middle school level studying population trends might work collaboratively to create graphs based on the population trends for specific countries/continents. They could then compare the graphs and make predictions about the challenges that each of these countries might face in the coming years.

2. Research & Information Fluency: We are so lucky to live in a time when such a wide variety of information is right at our fingertips (my husband has actually become a bit of an information junkie-clicking on link after link of Wikipedia connections.) It would be exciting the have students write research papers about obscure topics. Have them pick from a list of topics that would be difficult to find information on in a typical library (the New Zealand endangered bird the Takahe.) In this way you could teach them methods for web research while also hitting the middle school research paper head on.

3. Students could also use one of the various Web 2.0 recording tools to make videos of themselves giving speeches or reciting monologues. Speeches could be written about relevant issues and then e-mailed to state congress-people ... thus incorporating civic and community engagement.

In my observations I have noticed that some students actually take the initiative for themselves to incorporate their knowledge of technology into projects and assignments. As long as we are open and not closed to the idea of technology in the classroom, these standards will probably be easier to meet than we think.