ABC Community School

Kylie Pratt
08/01/2021
Position Paper
“Welcome to the 21st century.” This phrase has been tossed around since the beginning of
the millennia. It has been used in everything from movies to books and cited in local, national,
even international news. The 21st century saying represents how things in our world are
changing and advancing, very quickly. I am here to say it is time for the education system to get
on par and learn to keep up with the rest of society. Slowly schools in our district have been
integrating different technology into classrooms but now in my school, that technology is in
jeopardy. What I am here to tell you today is that technology needs to have a permanent place in
our schools. Technological advancements keep happening every day. Something new is
discovered every day and we see every month or every year new laptops, computers, gaming
systems, phones and many other technical advancements hit the markets. Our students will need
to know how to navigate a future with all of these technological devices. Future careers will
revolve around tech even careers that are traditionally non-technological will involve inevitably
need some level of technical support. Our jobs as teachers or as educators is to prepare our
students for success in adulthood. We help students strive to be the best they can be. If we are
not providing them with the accurate and up to date education surrounding technology, they will
not have the tools that are needed to be successful. Ed Tech is a term means Educational
Technology. Educations Technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and
educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. In a 21st century educational system Ed
Tech is a necessity not a an optional add on. The use of Ed Tech in classrooms produces a higher
interest in learning of the assigned content can increase chances for a student to study the topic
beyond just the assignment. The incorporation of Ed Tech instantaneously fosters innovation,
creativity, and collaboration in the classroom. These are characteristics that are missing from far
too many schools in the U.S. “Mandated testing, along with the mandated curriculum standards,
is how the U.S. communicates curriculum and assessment expectations in policy. All of this
points to an overall lack of focus on creativity and twenty-first century skills in U.S. education.”
(Henriksen, Henderson, Creely, Ceretkova, Černochová, Sendova, Tienken, 2018) This being
said, I believe we need more than just a 21st century classroom. We need a 21st century
Department of Education. We can start here in our classrooms, with our school, we need to
provide our students with the best chance they have to succeed. This includes integrating
technology into our curriculum standards and lesson plans. Students deserve a chance to enter
the workforce utilizing skills they were taught in school. Today I ask you to let ABC Community
School continue to use technology to assist in our student’s learning. I encourage you to let us
continue to provide students with the technological knowledge they will need to advance and be
successful in our current and future society.
Thank you.
Resource:
Henriksen, Danah, Henderson, Michael, Creely, Edwin, Ceretkova, Sona, Černochová,
Miroslava, Sendova, Evgenia, Tienken, Christopher H. (2018). Creativity and Technology in
Education: An International Perspective. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 23(3), 409-424.
Identification Of Standards
There are noticeable differences between the Nevada and National Educational
Technology Standards. First, we will talk about the Nevada Standards. In this document there are
instructions given on how to read and understand the different parts of the standard. There is a
total of six technology standards for Nevada. With each standard there are National Indicators
and Nevada Indicators. These indicators describe what the students should be able to do if the
standard has been mastered. In this document there are also the grade that is associated with each
indicator. The grades should on the indicators are second, fifth, eight, and twelfth. This means
that by grade twelve the student should have mastered all of the indicators of that grade and all of
the previous grades. There are many times multiple indicators of a standard in the same grade
level. I found the how to read breakdown of the Nevada standards very helpful and I referred to
that page often when reading through the document. Also included is a gallery at the end of the
list of standards to help define and give examples for some of the commonly used words in the
document. This was helpful as well to clarify what exactly the standard was created for.
Next, we will talk about the National Educational technology Standards. This is a website
instead of the document and on it you can find the standards not just for students. You can find
standard for educators, coaches, and educational leaders. There are seven standards in total and
there are no labeled indicators for those standards. Underneath each standard there are standards
and with each one of these there is a video link describing these standards and showing in
classroom example of them. These videos were very helpful in clarifying and giving examples of
what activities look like that encompass the technology standard. In every substandard there are
words that are highlighted and underlined. These words have definitions and examples linked, all
you need to do is click the word. I found this very helpful and looked at every word’s definition.
These resources given on the website really help you understand the standard.
The biggest difference I found in the Nevada and National Technology Standards are the
National standards are much more user friendly. I feel teachers will be able to implement them
more easily and more often because they are presented clearer and give great examples. The
definitions were easier found and better explained on the National standard website as well. The
next difference I noticed is the National standards do not give a specific age group or grade for
which these standards should be practiced or mastered. I feel this could give teachers a since of
freedom to be able to pick and choose which order to teach in. However, I do think this could be
a problem if the student does not get the lesson or changes schools or teachers it would be
tedious and difficult to figure out what standards have already been taught. Also, it would be
hard to track the progress therefore there would be no way of knowing if a student has mastered
all the standards by grade twelve.
From the National Education Technology Standards, I chose: 7d -- Students explore local and
global issues and use collaborative technologies to work with others to investigate solutions
From the Nevada Computer and Technology Standards, I chose: 1.B.12.1 -- Creativity and
Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop
innovative products and processes using technology.
Lesson Plan
• Name of Lesson: Tell Us Why We Should Care
• Grade level Appropriateness: 10th – 11th Grade
• Technology content standard addressed:
o Students explore local and global issues and use collaborative technologies to
work with others to investigate solutions.
o Create an original work using digital tools, including planning, research, editing,
and production.
• Other Content Standard Addressed:
o Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, evaluate, entertain, or tell a
story and that are appropriate to audience and purpose.
• Objective:
o Students will be able to work collaboratively to research a chosen topic/problem
and present the gathered information to an audience of peers.
• Materials Needed to Facilitate the Lesson:
o Computers/Laptops/Chromebook/Tablets/Cellphones
o imovie, Lightworks, Vimeo, Videolicious, or any other free and easy to use video
making software/application.
o Access to internet
• Suggested Group Size: 2 Students
• Procedures:
o Instruct students that they will be starting a project with a partner: This is a research
project you will be working on with a partner. You will select a topic of your choice
and then bring that topic selection to me for approval. Once your topic is approved
you may begin working.
o The assignments consist of two parts Part 1 is creating an informational video. This
video can tell us about a problem in our school, community, or society. This topic
could also be about something you lave and are passionate about and would like to
share with others. I will be demonstrating how to use a couple of different video
production software that will be available for you to use. If you already know of a
program that works for you for this assignment feel free to use it instead of the
programs I show you. The video you create should be at least 1 minute in length
and should follow a scrip and provide the following information:
✓ Why should we care about this?
✓ What can we do to help/ how do we get involved?
✓ Interesting facts or quotes to engage your audience
o Part 2 of this assignment is a 1 page report in MLA format stating your sources as
well as why you chose you topic/problem. Your report should also tell me what
program you chose to use to make your video. Lastly you will let me know what
you have learned from completing this project. You can write about what new
information you learned about using the software you chose or about the topic you
chose.
• Assessment:
o Does the video answer the following questions?
✓ Is the video 1 minute in length?
✓ Why should we care about this problem/topic?
✓ Are their facts given as reference and support?
✓ What can we do to help the problem/topic?
o Does the report in MLA format and have correct grammar, spelling and address the
following questions?
✓ Is the video link included at top of page?
✓ What is your Problem/topic?
✓ Why did you choose this topic?
✓ What resources did you use to gather information?
✓ What software/application did you use to produce your video and why?
✓ What did you learn from completing this project?