Creative Communicator: Unpacking ISTE Standard for Students #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. (ISTE Standard for Students)

So this may seem like a hard standard to pull off in a non-techie classroom but bear with me. This one is important! Some of the other standards are much more technical and forward thinking but the basic skill of communication is one that so many people face with emotional struggle. Adults often choose the wrong platform or format to share our grievances or we don't take advantage of the potential audiences we have for the worthy things we want to share. Or worse yet, we don't have the verbalization skills to share the great work that is being done. In this case, I'm talking about adults but it definitely transfers over to our students seven-fold!

I know we have already discussed digital citizenship in a prior blog post in this series but I believe communication is one of the most critical parts of being a good steward in the world of technology. I also believe that in today's society, we are losing our ability to have face to face conversations that are hard. (I'm preaching to myself here.) I hate conflict and would much rather broach a hard subject via email and then follow up face to face. Technology can make us lazy communicators and sadly it can also give us courage that we shouldn't always take advantage of.  

My husband makes fun of my girls and me because we will read a text and say, "Oh, she's mad!" He will then say, "How do you know? Did she tell you she was mad?" and my answer might be "Because she wrote in ALL CAPS" or "I can just tell." or "She used the angry face emoji." It drives him crazy. Communicating through technology often loses the nuances that face to face communication brings. That being said, to say we should strive to equip our students to be creative communicators is a vital skill for their future. There is not a single job I can think of in today's mainstream society that doesn't require the ability to communicate with others. So cheer up non-techie friends, even though you might not have the technology to support this, you will be aiding your students' ability to function in a face to face world even better if you make this standard a priority. 

• So what does a low tech or unplugged version of "creative communicator" look like? This year, one of our Bible teachers challenged his students to create memes after they finished the unit of the life of St. Paul. He told them to think of it like creating an Instagram post, but since social media is closed to students at our school, they created their posts using a slide deck. Their captions were full of written nuances that they gleaned from their studying. How brilliant was this lesson? He took a platform that students use every day and assessed their learning based on a current fad in society- memes. I love this idea! Did it have to be done on a slide deck? No. They could have done it with markers and papers just as easily. Or what if they had taken an actual photo and put the words right on top of it. Guys, that would be no different than app-smashing on an iPad (combining one or more platforms to create an original work).
• Remember oral reports? Hands sweaty, waiting for your name to be called so you can do your at least 3-minute speech on some topic. Sometimes you have a posterboard sitting next to you as a visual when you talk, sometimes you don't. Next time this opportunity arises in your classroom, stretch your students a bit. Tell them they have 3 minutes to be creative communicators instead of 3 minutes to give a book report. See what happens! Encourage them to build models, have visuals, and think about their intended audience. Open the door to increased connectivity and creativity. Give them a bigger audience than just you and their classmates. Ask in other classes, parents, or any visitor that would make the moment more special. Spend time beforehand teaching them skills of voice control, inflection, eye contact, and body language. You might not be teaching them digital skills but you sure will be teaching them the importance of being a creative communicator. Talk to them about what subject matters might benefit most from certain types of visuals. One day when they have the opportunity to use technology to enhance their already amazing communication skills, think about what they might do! Last week I had the honor of attending the Chattanooga Fab Institute and the keynote speaker for the first day was Shinjini Das, CEO and founder of Das Media Group (see her story here). Her charisma and ability to engage with the crowd is unique for a 27-year-old engineer. She has the face to face communication skills that don't necessarily fit with the stereotypical STEM field. She's a unicorn in her industry and we need to develop more unicorns in the STEM field. There is value in growing students that can not only DO but also SAY!
• Own it! Yeah, you the teacher. Your students may not have access to social media but you do. Find out your school district's stance on sharing student information/faces online and make sure you follow those guidelines. Then start using social media to show students when and how it can be a good platform for communication. Create a class blog and share the things happening in your classroom. Contact the author of a book with questions your students have curated while they read the author's book and send them to the author. Have your students create "how to" videos to relate to your curriculum and add to them yourself. Create a website using Google Sites templates and add poetry, photos, or well-written work. Seem like too much work? You don't have to retype everything they have turned in, take a photo and upload it! It is true, it does become a bit of extra work for you as a whole but you are modeling for your students how to be a creative communicator and adding value to the hard work they do in your classroom by showcasing to a broader audience. You are also showing your students how to add value to the digital world they live in. So much of digital citizenship focuses on a list of dangers and safeguards to be aware of but as a citizen, we also want to bring value to that world. Sharing learning and creating pathways for others to learn from our students does just that. 
• Be a trailblazer. Show students the value of communicating with new tools. Adopt the concept of using voice speakers in the classroom or for communicating with students and families. Create communication means meeting needs in effective ways. Why not choose the fastest growing platform since the iPhone to show students what it means to stay on the edge of learning? 

More ideas for no tech, low tech, and high tech teaching of this standard:

Check out the previous blog posts from the "Unpacking ISTE Standards for Students Techknowledge Gee" here:

• Standard #1 Empowered Learner

• Standard #2 Digital Citizen

• Standard #3 Knowledge Constructor

• Standard #4 Innovative Designer

• Standard #5 Computational Thinker

Computational Thinker: Unpacking ISTE Student Standard #5

Help your students think like a robot? What is the value in that? Sequential, computational thinking allows students to understand the reasons computers do the things they do. Learning how to think computationally allows users to get the most of their tools. In a tech-rich environment, this looks like teaching students coding, or introducing them to spreadsheet functions to analyze data, or using 3D printers to create models for learning different components in order to answer a bigger problem.

But what does a non-tech classroom look like that teaches computational thinking? I mean, the word "computer" is in the goal?! Believe it or not, it can be done with something as inexpensive as paper, markers, and Solo cups. So let's discuss this unplugged party! One of the goals of computational thinking is to help students think about complex problems in smaller increments.

• Start with explaining binary code by having students draw their name with each letter's code being represented with a different color. Or, create a necklace using straw pieces that spell out something using the binary code ASCII alphabet. This begins the process of understanding that computers talk to each other based on a certain "code."
• You don't have to have computers or bots to teach coding. Put different colored dots or Solo cups on the ground and ask your students to get from point A to point B, C, etc by mapping it out. Working in pairs or small groups is great for this endeavor! But how does that relate to your high school English class or your Spanish 2 class? How often do you give your students an assignment and they jump important parts of the process, or miss key moments that foreshadow something that changes the whole direction of the book? When you are teaching directions and common words in a foreign language, what if the students actually mapped it up in the language and learned to code at the same time? 

Does teaching this standard seem like a stretch to you? I hear teachers say all the time, "I love the things I find on Pinterest and see teachers doing on Twitter but I can't figure out how to do the 'fun stuff' and still teach my curriculum too. How are they doing that?" The answer is CREATIVITY. I've seen kids code Dash and Dot robots to a certain location in the classroom, open up an envelope and find the next spelling word to add to their piece of paper. Turn the mundane into a mini-lesson. You don't have to have a robot to do that, use the unplugged version mentioned above!

Are you students studying something in your classroom that happened in Germany? Have students create a "code" with one block equalling X many miles to get from your classroom to the location. Then as a class, go to http://newspapermap.com/ and have students look at a newspaper during that time period in that area versus your area and then make deductions on the differences of the cultures through the lens of what you are currently discussing in class. Coding is a great way to start the process of setting the plot, setting, and theme.

So some of you have plowed through the above ideas and thought "Yeah, but why add that level of extra work to my lesson plans?" I get it, I struggled with that as well and then I saw the engagement that happened when a teacher didn't just say "Today we are going to read ______, it takes place in ________ in the 20th century." But do it not only for engagement but also because you see the value of those ISTE Standards for Students as a way of making sure your students are prepared for the road ahead of them. Even if your classroom doesn't have ready access to technology or you don't know the first thing about coding a computer.

In 1999 the U.S.Department of Labor said 65% of today's grade-school children will end up in jobs that have not been invented yet. (https://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/herman/reports/futurework/report/chapter1/main.htm) Folks, that was 20 years ago! We have to help students think computationally. It isn't about an iPad, Chromebook, laptop, or wearable technology. As Tom Murray said at FETC 2017, "The technology our students are using today is the worst technology they will ever use." We have to prepare them for that unknown to the best of our abilities. We are living in a world of accelerated change!

I personally am greatly intrigued by the idea of enhancing the classroom setting by using voice speakers such as Echo Dots and Google Assistants. I find myself longing for the knowledge of how to code for these devices to better equip classrooms with personalized Alexa Skills and Google Actions. In a very real way, I am seeing how focusing on ISTE Student Standard #5 would have benefited me as a student for my future.
No Tech Low Tech High Tech

Using the Tools Appropriately: Unpacking ISTE Standard #2

ISTE Student 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.

Warning: I will get on my soapbox here a bit. Helping students to develop appropriate
digital citizenship skills is an imperative part of the educational process not only for their
own safety and legal obligations but for the care of others as well. I feel very strongly
about the importance of all educators that have technology in their classroom speaking
into appropriate usage- with rights come responsibilities.  As a four year Common Sense Media
Digital Citizenship educator I start teaching grade-level appropriate digital citizenship in
kindergarten to talk about the importance of wise choices and the impact it can have on you.
If you are in a technology-rich environment I highly recommend your school district adopting
a digital citizenship curriculum and embedding it into your district’s scope and sequence right
in the various subject matter curriculum itself. Let your technology teachers spend extra time
on it but every teacher should be speaking into digital citizenship issues because we are all
stewards of it. We should see ourselves as both consumers and creators of the Internet.
This past school year a group of fifth graders at our school had been taught how to create
a Google site. On their own, during their own time, they created a website of cartoons for fun.
Because I had been speaking into digital citizenship the whole time they had been at our
elementary school, they allowed me to make some suggestions to better protect themselves
as well as help them learn how to track visitors to their site. If they had been 16-year-old boys
doing this, I doubt I would have had that same opportunity but what an amazing blessing it was
to me to see these students become empowered learners from a previous lesson and then to
seek me out to figure out best practice. It was one of my all-time favorite teacher moments.

We live in a world of instant gratification, instant reciprocation, instant retaliation. Students who
are 18 need to learn that by forwarding one inappropriate photo that was sent to them by the
person who took it could put them on a sexual predators list for the rest of their life. Teaching
digital citizenship is probably the easiest standard to meet without technology itself. Every
person has heard some horror story and quite possibly they have even had a family member
that has lived through one. But I believe we also have a responsibility to share the positive
influence technology can have as well.

If you are in a low tech environment:

• Have students participate in a station rotation Common Sense media digital citizenship

curriculum that supports their grade level.

• Talk about valuing the intellectual property of others and show them examples of

plagiarism and ways they can detect if they have accidentally plagiarized.  

• Have students google themselves or their parents to see what they find. Use that to talk

about the digital footprint they are creating and how it will remain long after they are gone.

If you are in a no-tech environment:

• Watch age-appropriate videos to discuss various digital citizenship issues.
• Create discussions on “what if” this happened and what would be the correct result.

Common Sense Media also has several unplugged options to choose from.

• Speak from your heart.

One of the most effective lessons I teach is sharing two stories with my students. In 2011,

President Obama was coming to visit Chattanooga, TN. Our family owns a donut shop

in Chattanooga and I immediately thought, “How cool would it be if the President came to

visit our shop?”  

Being a techie, I immediately started tweeting the #POTUSinCHA hashtag to invite him to Julie Darling Donuts. The problem was that I was currently in Atlanta at an edtech conference and I

didn’t know that the majority of the politicians in Chattanooga were boycotting the

event. His visit had become a political hotbed. On my way home from Atlanta I received a

phone call from one of the local news stations and they asked if they could interview me about

why I wanted him to come and about the special flavored donut we were going to make in his

honor on the day he was in Chattanooga. Oblivious to any agenda, I jumped on the chance to

give our 2-year-old company some publicity for free.

When I was interviewed I told the reporter it wasn’t about politics, it was about respecting

the office of the presidency. That evening the piece aired on the nightly news and before

I could say “Chocolate Salted Caramel Donut” my company and myself were being viciously

attacked on social media and via emails. This story made national news! I was called everything

from a racist (because the donut was chocolate) to an exploiter. The Republicans were

mad at me for welcoming him and the Democrats were mad at me for capitalizing on him

being in town. I received hate emails and threats personally. I remember being so distraught

the next morning when I would read all that was said and we were actually quite worried

it was going to be the demise of our shop. President Obama did not visit the donut shop

that day and a group of friends also started a Facebook support page for me that week.

Looking back, it was so hard. People who didn’t know me or know anything about me

made so many assumptions about me and when anyone tried to speak up, it just made

it worse. I laid in bed for 4 days sick to my stomach thinking I had ruined our business

with one tweet that invited the President of the United States to my donut shop.

The upside to this story is that up to that point, it was the busiest week we had ever

had at the shop but it came at such a personal expense to me. I was bullied and

ridiculed by adults. It has become my greatest lesson for teaching digital citizenship.

But I don’t like to leave students, parents, or teachers scared of the Internet.

I like to remind them of the good things that have happened in my life because of

the Internet. This is my favorite success story: In February of this year, our 7-year-old

border collie named Secret went missing. She didn’t have on her collar, she wasn’t

chipped, and she had disappeared from a location she wasn’t familiar with. The truth is,

it felt pretty hopeless that we would get her back. But I’m an edtechie and I knew

first hand the power of social media. I do what I do best, I flooded my social media

accounts with photos of Secret and put out pleas to anyone and everyone to be on the

lookout for her. This silly dogs photo was shared over 2,000 times by friends,

family, acquaintances, and downright strangers. People I didn’t even know would

send me messages on Facebook telling me they had driven around the area she

was originally lost in looking for her. If everyone wants to know “Where’s Waldo?”

then a close second would be “Where’s Secret?” 2,000 reshares. It’s mind-boggling.

I remember telling my husband that I would keep looking hard for her for one week.

I followed up on every supposed sighting (there were only 2) and someone in our family

checked the local animal shelters daily to see if she had made her way back there.

We drove around Red Bank, Tennessee yelling out the window for hours. Six days

after her disappearance I got in bed and told my husband, “I don’t think she’s coming back.”

The next morning was my monthly #CHAedu #coffeeEDU at the donut shop.

Local educators that want to come together once a month to discuss education topics

of our choice for one hour. It’s a very fluid, organic meeting that I love. That morning

we had more participants than we had ever had and right when it was time to start,

my phone rang...and I answered it. It was the executive director of our local humane

society and he told me he thought he had Secret but she had been hit by a car and

would need surgery. Both my girls were working at the donut shop that morning

and I quickly updated them and left. The meeting went on without me! I may or may

not have driven a tad erratically but that is not pertinent to this. As I entered the

building the director told me she had been brought in the night before due to a phone

call they had received that a dog had been hit in Red Bank. They had taken her

to a local animal hospital for x-rays and to make sure nothing was life threatening

and one of the ladies that worked there thought she recognized the dog. The next

morning she called the humane society because she had scoured social media and

found the photo and gave the executive director my contact information. Our Secret

was back with us, a little worse for wear, but 2 surgeries later we have all put that

loss behind us. We have not forgotten the power of people coming together using

technology for a greater good. We spend so much time warning, threatening, and

scaring kids about social media but what an opportunity for me to model usage that

had an outcome with a happy ending. Crowdsourced dog finding! We all have stories

and the more real they are to our students, the more likely they will have an impact

that will matter at the appropriate time.

Other ideas for creating "Digital Citizen" opportunities in your classroom:

                        NO TECH                                LOW TECH                       HIGH TECH                         

Digital Citizen

Use newspapers to discuss articles that used technology and then discuss the impact of media on our footprint. Also, pull in a discussion on the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship using these articles.

Have students volunteer to be “googled” or google yourself as a teacher and talk about the importance of an appropriate digital footprint. Discuss if having no footprint is good or bad?

Have students create a Fakebook for a historical or fictional character then discuss the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship and how they relate to your character.

Voice and Choice - Dissecting ISTE Standard for Student "Empowered Learner"

ISTE Student 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.

The idea of centers is nothing new in education. In fact, if you are an elementary teacher centers/stations are probably a part of your day, every day. They allow you to work with small groups, they allow for embedded movement and centers/stations can be a great way to differentiate. But how often do we let students choose which center/station to learn a concept from? Or even yet, how often do we help students learn which ways they learn best through giving voice and choice of how they learn and feedback to help them think through what works best for them? For most teachers, this isn’t our natural way to teach but with the advent of this thing called the internet, we no longer have to be the imparter of all things known as knowledge in the classroom. Beyond that, we shouldn’t take that role on a regular basis. We should be growing our students into lifelong learners that know how to learn. Is this missing from your classroom?

For more years than less, teachers have spent 7 hours a day teaching all students in their classroom the exact same information knowing that some kids would get it quickly, some kids would eventually get it and some kids would never get it. We learned to teach to the middle. We hope that the quicker learners will help the slower learners as we work the classroom helping the average to slower learners and we have this predictable bell curve every year of what signifies our blood, sweat, and tears in trying to make a difference in this world.

Because of the closeness of information availability, our students no longer have to be completely dependent on the teacher to know the subject matter. The ubiquitousness of technology gives both the educator and the student the ability to consider the educational process differently. Platforms like YouTube and Khan Academy create opportunities for students to learn anytime, anywhere, and pretty much anything. Some students are doing just that. But how do we empower all students to be more involved in their learning path?

This is where giving them voice and choice in their learning process could make a difference. It’s not going to come naturally to them. One would think that when you say “Ok, kiddos you can choose how you want to learn this concept today - here are 3 choices” that they would be like, “finally!” But students are conditioned to learn the way we have taught them all these years. Tell me what I need to know so I can regurgitate it back to you to prove that I was listening in class. I’m not saying teachers don’t try to differentiate the way they instruct but let’s be real, most classes follow a predictable pattern of instruction that would look familiar to anyone walking in the door.

How do we change this? Options. It will take time on your part to create these options but what if students walked into class and there were 3 different stations in the room and they were given a rubric that let them know what they needed to learn that day. Let’s say the lesson was for third graders to learn about Electrical Circuits. You walked into the room and you see:

• Area 1 in the classroom is set up with 9-volt batteries, alligator clips, and a section of Christmas tree lights with one light available. (high tech)
• Area 2 set up with a video cued and ready to go in front of a group of desks. (low tech)
• Area 3 there is a small area in the front of the room where the teacher is waiting to lead a lesson on circuits. (no tech)

In the above case, you are creating voice and choice and have high tech, low tech, and no tech options all in the same lesson. But how can you empower your learners in other ways? 

What are ways you can look at ISTE Student Standard #1 "Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences" in your classroom (yes, even a high school classroom) that would allow you to feel like you were introducing or even helping student master the concept of knowing what it means to be an empowered learner? If you are unsure, click on the link in the first line of this post and look at the breakdown of Standard 1, then create an opportunity. 

Other ideas for creating "Empowered Learner" opportunities in the classroom:

Hindsight: How I *WISH* I had Supported Our Technology Rollout

According to wikipedia, the first iPad was released on April 3, 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad). Simon Sinek originally published his book Start with the Why in 2009. Oh to have read that book then! Mobile devices in education have been a messy journey. I find great comfort in knowing we aren't the only school that has muddled through this. I hear, see, and gain insight from people all over the country as I ask "What works for you in this situation?" as we finished up year 6 of a 1:1 plan that continues to develop and adjust to the ever-changing needs of our students. Our school started out as BYOT in middle and high school and we are slowly transitioning to chromebook rollouts over the next few years. Our elementary school started with a rolling cart of iPads and we have slowly added more and more into the mix for use and a chromebook cart as well.

In the beginning, we introduced Google suites and annotation options to our upper school teachers but there was never really a "why" that all our teachers feel comfortable hanging their hat on. Most recently, our upper school teachers have been held accountable for the following:

• All mechanically scorable assessment items must be completed in Canvas.
• Students must be allowed to submit written work (papers) electronically without having to submit an additional paper copy.

Over the last few years, we have created a Technology Integration: Goals and Outcomes for Students document. This document is based on the ISTE Standards for Students and it represents the technology skills and abilities we want to see a graduating senior from our school being able to accomplish. This is our why. These goals and outcomes prepare students for their future. It seemed we finally figured out the why but I will say even knowing that is a need, it is hard for educators to discern what that means to them and their classrooms. Heck, it is hard for technology leaders to discern how best to move forward in creating these opportunities for all students!

Our desire to set skill lists and minimum usage requirements for teachers is a feeble attempt at best to reform education with a tool. Google, MIE, and Apple have created leveled educator certifications to prove teachers know the tools and platforms but the question still remains...are we using technology in a transformational way? The last 2 years I found myself focusing on this. How do we help teachers to see how to use these devices in their classrooms for transformed learning. I found myself focusing on the ISTE Standards for Students because they seem to focus on reforming the educational process from the student perspective. I then looked at each of the 7 standards and broke them down into really hands-on applications for teachers to consider in a no tech, low tech, or high tech environment. All of a sudden I found myself writing a book. A book that I have not published but one that keeps pulling at me.

In November 2018 I led a session called "Tech Knowledge...Gee!" at the Tennessee Education Technology Conference that basically looked at the topic of my "book in process" and helped educators dissect each of the ISTE Student standards to look at ways they were potentially teaching each topic in their classroom in no tech, low tech or high tech ways. If they looked at the standard and couldn't think of an option, we as a group sat together to brainstorm ideas for them. Those that attended found the concept extremely helpful because they were no longer looking at the device or platform but more as a concept they wanted their students to understand. For teachers, this created a clarity that they did not have before. It is our nature to look for recipes that have the ingredients we already have in the kitchen. For educators, we often do this. "I have 5 chromebooks and Google suites, what can I make with this?" But often this means we are missing out on the gourmet meal that we could cook.

Over the next few weeks, I have decided to break down the chapters of this book into blog posts to help others look at technology integration through a different lens. I will say that some of the ISTE Standards for Students lend themselves to certain disciplines. Don't force yourself to hit every standard just so you can say you did if you are an English teacher BUT I do believe every standard can be supported in every classroom. Stay tuned for more!

Interpreting the "ISTE Standards for Educators" (Series 1 of 8)

As a member of ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education), I appreciate the vetting process that the student, educator, and administrator standards go through to support best practice digital age educational environments. These standards focus on learning and not the tools to learn. While the standards have concrete ways to address technology integration, all of these standards are goals educators should and do have for themselves in general.

This is part one of an 8 part series that gives my views and suggestions on how educators can use these standards as a catalyst for becoming significant adopters of the digital landscape in regards to educational technology. Each of the 7 areas designated give educators agency in creating meaningful opportunities in their classroom that encourages digital skills for our students. I have quoted and requoted this statement: "65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report." With that we need to prepare students with skill sets that will transfer to any job that they might have. The ISTE Standards for Students  create a framework to make that happen but in order for that to come to fruition, there has to be an understanding of the role of the educator in this digital age. 

The following outline explains the goals of the ISTE Standards for Educators (the dates by each section is when I will be blogging about that particular standard):

• Empowered Professional

• Learner (week of 10/9/17)
• Leader (week of 10/16/17)
• Citizen (week of 10/23/17)

• Learning Catalyst
• Collaborator (week of 10/30/17)
• Designer (week of 11/6/17)
• Facilitator (week of 11/13/17)
• Analyst (week of 11/20/17)

Often when people feel they are being held to a standard they immediately hesitate or push back. It feels like another box to check, lesson to learn or reason to feel challenged. As with any standard we are striving for competency in, excellence is not immediately expected but forward motion is the key. Unlike other standards, I feel these standards empower educators in the classroom to be recognized for their stepping out of the traditional framework of teaching and walking the plank of change but instead of an awaiting group of hungry crocodiles, freedom to work with students that desire to be self-motivated learners can await. To adopt the ISTE Standards for Educators means a willingness to see cultural changes from what has been the norm in education. I can tell you from firsthand knowledge, it won't come easy. Students aren't use to having agency in their learning in the way their ISTE student standards provide. Teachers aren't use to the lack of "control" that their ISTE educator standards suggest.

I do believe these standards will be accepted and widespread in 5-10 years as the norm. If you look at the "life expectancy" and re-writes of all the ISTE standards, they change based on the norm catching up with them...and like any good goal, the finish line moves again. Right now I look at some of the above subsections and think "we just aren't there yet" or "wow, is that who we want our teachers to be?" but I believe the gauntlet is there for competency to be had. I believe the empowerment teachers would feel if they were in this type of educational culture would make them feel both needed and successful.

Often teachers worry that they will be replaced by technology but the goals of the ISTE Standards for Educators is to create opportunities for teachers to truly touch every life in a personal way by leveraging the use of technology to give more time to the teacher's and student's day. These standards encourage teachers to model what lifelong learning looks like as they learn their students and lead them. 

Digital Tools to Mobilize a Community to a Goal

Today, as I was looking over the scope and sequence that ISTE has put out as plausible technology integration standards to support the ISTE student standards I found myself stuck on one standard and feeling the weight of the pros and cons stacking up equally on both sides of my brain as I wrestled with this idea: "Use digital tools such as blogs, websites and social media to crowdsource, crowdfund and mobilize a community toward a goal."

On one side I immediately swiped it under the doormat when the words "crowdsource" and "crowdfund" appeared. Why is this a skill that a graduate of our school must need to know? When I see those words I think of begging to support a cause for funds. And then the rumination began. I asked myself these questions:

• Why is the standard there?
• If we don't do it are we creating a disadvantage to our students?
• Is this about exposure? integration? or even more...stewardship?
• Are we just called to teach students how to navigate the internet or are we called to teach them how to add value to it as well?
• As I forward think, is the internet always about taking or are we to give as well? Every click we make is monitored by an algorithm that learns us. How can I use that for good?

These questions led me to think about my own life. Do I crowdsource? Have I ever sought to crowdfund for a greater goal? YES on both accounts. I use social media to share the things I've learned via blogs to help others, I've asked people to join me at educational events like Edcamp Gig City and CoffeeEDU, I've asked people to support me in my JDRF walks to find a cure for type 1 diabetes, and more recently I've reached out to an entire city to help me find my lost dog. I've done this using social media, blogging, and various websites. 

I realized I am the epitome of this statement but the question that continues to ruminate in my head...should it be a REQUIRED skill? I don't like the terms "crowdsource" or "crowdfund" but I think there is value in the meaning of the statement. As I look at my job as an instructional technologist I see this as a way to use technology for a greater good. It definitely doesn't have to be to the extent I utilize it but if at my christian school it is a goal to graduate stewards of this world then technology and the internet can't just be seen as something to consume but also something to make better through our usage. The words "value added" come to mind. According to the dictionary value added means:

noun

ECONOMICS

1. 1.

   the amount by which the value of an article is increased at each stage of its production, exclusive of initial costs.

adjective

1. 1.

   (of goods) having features added to a basic line or model for which the buyer is prepared to pay extra.

Are we as educators truly teaching our students to add value to the digital world if we don't embrace mediums to do this? Even more, in a christian school setting aren't we called to it? Maybe I'm digging too deep and creating comparisons that only work in my head. But if all we do is take, learn, discern, and lurk are we becoming true stewards? As a steward we are responsible "for taking care of something, to arrange and keep in order in a way that glorifies God." Does this just mean personal intake? In our world that values collaboration and growing together I believe it means not just becoming fat babies off all the information on the internet but also exercising our right and responsibility to add to that environment as well.

I do struggle with the wording of the statement because I don't think crowdfunding is a particular skill that every student needs to know but I look at two instances in my life where crowdsourcing made a huge difference to me.

• In 2010 after a very hurtful attack through the use of social media on myself and my donut business, a friend and educator, Jennifer Rimback, created a community support page for me on Facebook that helped me through a terrible week in my life due to poor digital citizenship skills of the masses in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• Just this year after losing my dog for a week, she was returned back to us due to a bombarding of social media and websites being shared over 500 times by people I did and didn't know. 

These were life changers. Is this a skill that should be taught is the question that keeps running in my mind?  Is this just something people should do if they want to but not be expected? I'll be honest, until today I thought so but as I have thought and rethought on this today and reflected on how much negativity we see on the internet, my mind has changed. Perhaps it is time to model appropriate and value-added internet opportunities to bring it to the forefront in today's world. Should it be crowdsourced? I don't know...but I do believe the power of the internet can be seen better through this choice. To experience the positive benefits of crowdsourcing exposure is a beautiful thing, take it from someone that has also received the opposite because of a donut named "Obama." 

The Writing Process that Utilizes Tech Integration

I've been thinking about ways to utilize the efficiencies of edtech and create consistencies for our students lately. While teachers may all expect MLA format at our school, do we also expect the same process in writing? I am not an english teacher but I do enjoy writing. Our school does a wonderful job of growing students that can whip out a paper in no time. It's definitely one of our academic strengths. I believe that is because we see writing across the curriculum, which is a wonderful thing. I also know that some rubrics are either being worked on or are in place to grade papers equally no matter what the subject matter. I love that. 

I can't help but wonder how does technology support that well-oiled process because well...that's what I do...wonder about technology. So I am using this blog post to brainstorm possible ways to suggest technology be utilized both for efficiencies of the teacher/grader as well as to create efficiencies, standardized expectations, and additional learning opportunities for the students. 

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paragraph_hamburger

Prewriting: That time when students are gathering together in their mind what this paper will say and look like. It's the prep stage. I'll always remember sitting in on a fourth grade teacher explaining the parts of a paragraph to his students as a hamburger. I had never heard that before and it has always stuck with me. We, as educators, work hard to help our students learn to write. For many students this planning stage might best be done through pen and paper. Why not allow students to plan using the Wave Rocketbook notebook that would back up to their Google drive? Or let them use some mind mapping tool like Popplet to organize their thought processes to decide which direction to go? Or let them organize their main parts of their paper in Google Docs and allow peer review feedback via comments? 

Drafting: We are a school that uses GSuites. The ability to create their first draft in Google Docs adds so much robustness to the writing process because of the ability to give immediate feedback as soon as a peer or teacher makes suggestions. The ability to see past correction histories in the process can help writers maneuver forward in creating a very good paper. The beauty of self-saving Google Docs is there is less pressure to work on the fine tuning and more ability to just GO while writing. Research shows us that in the process of paper writing creativity is stronger when typing due to the fact that the brain works faster than we can physically write. The act of "writing" slows us down. While I don't believe technology integration = typing papers in class, I do believe the efficiencies of faster creation and a teacher working the room either virtually in a document or reading over a student's shoulder is a huge benefit to today's classrooms. 

Revising and Editing: There are multiple ways that Google Docs aids the revising and editing stages even before anyone other than the author lays eyes on it. For instance, teaching students to turn on the editing options (to the upper right of the paper) as they type allows them to learn as they go. 

One of the more recent features of Google Docs that can help students in researching is the "EXPLORE" feature that allows a student to access a web browser within the Google Doc to quickly look up things to support their writing. This can be found under the Tools tab on the tool bar.

While talking about research, here is where others might disagree with me but I think we are at a time where it is more imperative than ever that we help students learn what plagiarism is and we allow them to make corrections before they actually "turn in the paper."  When I was in high school (a long time ago) I think it was easier to realize if you were plagiarizing or not. I went to a library to gather a limited amount of resources and I read through them. Because it was a limited amount of resources, it was easy to remember what I read verses what I inferred from what I read. Today's students can pick up their device and have access to oodles of information on any given topic. I think it is easier than ever before to plagiarize and not even realize it. Look at all the hot topic media reports of various celebrities and politicians being called out for plagiarism. I know this is a judgment on my part but I wonder if it is truly intentional plagiarism much of the time. 

By expecting students to import their papers to something like www.turnitin.com before turning it in for grading, we help our students become aware of what plagiarism is in the process. Not only that, we put the owness on our students to correct grammatical errors before they get to the teacher (this works unless you are actually grading for grammar obviously). The point I'm trying to make is this can become an effective teaching tool in itself and make for efficiencies for our teachers. I do not think running a paper through a self-checking software means it is a good paper. I do think it can be part of steps that could ensure a paper is well written though.

Rewriting: Teachers being able to give feedback during the revisions stage (after going through something like turnitin.com) via Google Docs comments allows the teachers to see if corrections to suggestions were actually made or just ignored. Instead of having multiple papers in front of them of drafts, this makes for efficiencies as well. On the student side, to be able to click "resolve" in the process of rewrites creates a neatness of process for the student. Dare I say receiving suggestions or questions from a teacher via comments instead of pen marks potentially written all over a page is also both easier to read for the student and less overwhelming when doing final writes?

Publishing: In the past, a "published" document basically meant a teacher and maybe the students in the class got to see the finished document but in today's world the ability to allow students authentic feedback from the world at large is both an amazing ability and meets the ISTE (International Society for Technology Education) standards for students in multiple areas in regards to educational technology. What if our students added their paper to a blog? Shared their paper with a prominent author on the subject of their paper? Created an opportunity for authentic feedback by emailing the paper to scientists, historians, or others they feel might connect with what they have said? 

To repeat the process I think might best meet both student and teacher needs in integrating technology into writing:

1. Students receive rubric for assignment when the assignment is explained.
2. Students create mind maps in their planning stages, either by using digital paper or online graphic organizers.
3. Students draft their paper in Google Docs and utilize both the editing options and the explore options during this process.
4. Students upload the paper to www.turnitin.com to look for both grammatical and plagiarism issues and then rewrite after receiving the results but before sharing with teacher/grader.
5. Students share document with teacher/peers for review and feedback. Comments in Google Docs are used to make the process of corrections more streamlined for students.
6. Expectations for publishing are in place for (x) number of papers a year for every student.

I know I am not an English teacher so I wonder what parts of this seem worrisome? A burden?....Thoughts?