Educational Technology Standards

• The first few standards are the ones that caught my eye--not because they are first, but because they fit into my content language arts the best.  Creativity and innovation; communication and collaboration; research and information fluency; and number 4 critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. They also encourage literacy which is great. Kids today have a big connection with technology, so if you can build literacy skills with that, I think they would process it more easily. You are helping students to connect their personal knowledge and history to predicting and create new ways of using technology. 
• One thing I really appreciate about these standards, is that they, not just technical literacy, but general literacy.  This is great, because a lot of kids can relate to technology more than any other subject area. If they have the opportunity to develop literacy skills, such as predicting, interpreting, connecting, summarizing, with a subject they enjoy, they will have a much better chance at grasping and improving their own literacy and apply it to other content areas. I truly hadn't thought about this connection before--which is surprising since are youth today basically use technology as a second language.  
• In general, these standards are trying to give students the tools they need to succeed and navigate through our technologically growing society. They also seem to be giving students an appropriate way to discover and use technology--which is very important. You can get into a lot of trouble on accident if you don't know what to avoid while using the Internet and technology in general. It can be scary to think of what kids can find, or what can find them. I'm surprised how specific these standards are. They certainly give a lot of room for creativity, but they are just as specific as any other content area.  The great thing is that you can accomplish these standards in any content area, which is pretty great. 
• For research, I could have them research an author, or the historical events that took place during the time of the novel they are reading. They could then get together in groups and come up with a presentation and create some kinds of podcast. I could then compile them and post them on our class blog. They would probably appreciate the technologically infused project.