Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DE ALBA
Position Paper
Dear Clark County School District,
It has been brought to my attention that Clark County School District wants all schools in the
district to discontinue using technology in the classroom and concentrate instruction solely on
topics needed to pass standardized multiple choice performance exams. While passing these exams
is important, I do not believe it is all a child needs to take away from a K-12 education. Technology
intergraded learning uses hands on styles that in turn remains in the students memory years after
leaving public school. According to Stacey Goodman, an artist and educator from Oakland,
California stated, Digital technology such as tablets can help teachers and students rediscover
traditional ways of learning by using touch, movement, sound, and visuality [3]. Goodman also
stated that if we place a greater importance on only reading as a source of knowledge, we
incidentally affect a students capacity to absorb by observation, and totally, hinder our ability to
learn visually. Technology gives us the ability to embracing it with uses of sound, sight, movement,
and touch in a tremendous way of rediscovering outdated cultural practices and creating them to
be the leading practice in school today. This will better help us educate the students so that they
will be well rounded in all subjects through the use of technology. I will be giving you an example
of this in a lesson plan of I have attached to this letter.
Learning Technology, as you know, is defined as the broad range of communication,
information and related technologies that can be used to support learning, teaching, and assessment.
Learning technologists are people who are actively involved in managing, researching, supporting
or enabling learning with the use of learning technology [2]. My experience as a teacher in the
Clark County School District at ABC Community School has provided me with many reason why
technology should not be taken out of the schools. I will be sharing a few reasons why not to take
away our technology and along with sharing well-known educational technologists ideas. I have
witnessed many students improve their performance in reading, writing, and math, to name a few.
These students were below grade average in these subjects. After I researched some websites,
software, hardware and collaborated with other teachers in the country, I implemented techniques
that required students to actively use technology. The students physically become a part of their
learning process. Grades went up 2 grade levels from an F and/or D to a B. Other students that
where not below grade level also improved their performance and understanding above their grade
level. I mention this because technology is not just for those students who are below in their grade,
but also for the students who are at their grade level and beyond with the use of technology.
In 1972, according to Edsger Dijkstra, a computer and mathematical scientist, stated that
computers only presented the new problem of learning to use them effectively [1]. Yes, this still
stands true today in 2015, but if technology is taken out of our schools this will not improve. It is
all about how we use computer technology to effectively teach our students in the classroom with
the creativity of the teachers using the technology. Students will improve and will never be bored
in the classroom and if they become bored, it could lead to more behavioral problems in the
district. Dijkstra was quoted saying, Computer science is no more about computers than
astronomy is about telescopes. According to the article, Challenges for Educational
Technologists in the 21st Century, as these technologies continue to evolve, ethical issues such as
equal access to resources become imperative [1]. If you remove our technology this will
absolutely become an unequal access to technology resources in our schools. Technology will
improve our students testing scores and their grades, but without technology I fear for the future
of education.
3
Work Cited
1. Mayes, R., Natividad, G., & Spector, J. M. (2015). Challenges for educational
technologists in the 21st century. Education Sciences, 5(3), 221-237.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci5030221
2. Januszewski, A.; Persichitte, K. A history of the AECTs definitions of educational
technology. In Educational Technology: A Definition with Commentary; Januszewski, A.,
Molenda, M., Eds.; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: New York, NY, USA, 2008; pp. 259
282
3. Goodman, S. (2015, August 28). Using New Technology to Rediscover Traditional Ways
of Learning. Retrieved from Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-newtechnology-rediscover-traditional-ways-learning-stacey-goodman
Identification of Standards
After studying the 3 different technology standards at the local school District, State of
Nevada, and national level, I found that the state and district level standards offer guidance on
students who are exceeding standards, meeting standards, approaching standards, and who may be
below average. On the national level I found that there were not only standards for students, but
also standards for teachers, administrators, coaches, and computer science educators. On the state
level I found this standard, Productivity Tools: Students use appropriate productivity tools
including but not limited to word processing, spreadsheet, database, multimedia and
telecommunications was very similar to the standards on the national level that I have been
working with in EDU 214 this semester. The national standards have less to them but are just as
important as the standards of the district and state level. It looks as though the district and state
followed the national standards fairly the same but added more information to their standards like
certain grade levels and whether they were as the expected grade level the students were supposed
to be.
For the lesson plan I will meet the National Educational Technology Standards for Students
(NETS) through Standard #1, which is Students demonstrate create thinking, construct
knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. It will take creative
thinking to decide what kind of layout the student will create for their website. Within this standard
students are to create original works as a means of personal or group expression. When the student
uses the coding process of HTML they are creating original works. HTML gives the student the
freedom to create a website with whatever color, pictures, and layout they choose. Their work is
original through this. There are so many website generators out there that do not allow students
the complete freedom that HTML coding gives to the student. Stand #1 also articulates for the
student to use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. One of the websites
that I provided in this lesson plan needed the student to use the site as a live website simulation so
they could see what the code would create if they decided to use that code.
Lastly, for the lesson plan I am in line with the State of Nevada Department of Education
- VISUAL ARTS: Context Content Standard 4.0: Students understand the visual arts in relation
to history and cultures. This project will have the students research famous painting or art in
particular parts of history. They also had to present an image of the painting or art work along
with a short story of the art and/or artist if available.
Start HTML coding and follow along here and on the tutorial
Now that you have all the components to make your website go to: HTML Tutorials
for Beginners at HtmlDog.com
The tutorial will ask you to open up the software called Notepad in Windows or
TextEdit in Mac OSX.
Follow the instructions in the HTML Beginner Tutorial by clicking on the Getting
Started link and soon you will find out just how easy it is to use HTML to create
a website however you want it to look. At the bottom of each page you will find a
Next Page link name telling you what is next. Click on that link to move on.
Keep in mind that any mistake in the coding will create a mess most of the time, so
always check your coding to make sure each step was done correctly. You do not
want to go back through a web page full of coding to figure out what went wrong.
Sometimes you will go over the coding 5 times and still not find it.
Steps necessary for full credit:
Title Tags
1. On the HOME page only - In between the title tags use Your Name Freedom of
Artistic HTML Project.
2. On the other 3 pages - In between the title tags use Use the Name of ONE of
THREE eras I provided you with along with - Freedom of Artistic HTML Project.
Using a different era for each page. Remember there are only 3 eras I provided you.
3. One the 5th page - In between the title tags use Work Cited - Freedom of Artistic
HTML Project.
Your first line within the Body Tags
1. On the HOME page only - In between the body tags use (use the paragraph code
specified on the how to HTML coding link I provided) and type in A Creative Title
for the Website (then use the closing paragraph code) hit enter (use the paragraph
code again) and Your Name(then use the closing paragraph code). This will give
you one line with you Website Name and a second line (below) with your name
underneath your title. A total of 2 lines. Follow the steps and you will be fine. Use
the paragraph tag again to start your introduction to the website explaining the
different type of era webpages and end with a closing paragraph tag.
2. On the other 3 era pages only - In between the body tags use Use the Name of
ONE Era I provided you with. Using a different era for each page. Remember
there are only 3 eras I provided you.
3. One the 5th page use - In between the body tags use Work Cited. Make sure it is
in MLA 7th Edition
Heading are required for all the web pages you create.
1. Heading 1 for Your Name Freedom of Artistic HTML Project and heading 2
for Your Name on the Home page.
2. Heading 1 on Use the Name of ONE Era I provided you with on each era
page.
3. Heading 1 on Work Cited on the work cited page.
Must use Lists on Work Cited Page
Use Lists to create your work cited page as a number list. Include the tutorial HTML
website I provided you with as well. All the websites that are on your work cited
page need to be coded as links. When creating your short stories in each web page
site your story with numbers such as [1] that link to your work cited page. You
do not need to use the id attribute for code linking unless you find it useful.
Images
You will need to provide a photo of the famous painting with a short story of the
painting and/or of the artist who painted it, if one is provided. There are times you
might come across famous art or painting but the artist is unknown. Points will be
deducted if there is a known artist but you fail to mention them.
Tables
Forms
Putting It All
Together
9
Assessment:
Identify Topic - 30
Research 30
Short Stories - 30
Image usage - 30
HTML Coding - 30
10
Student Sample