New Technology Standards and Requirements

One of the main ways I try to use tech in the classroom is to foster creativity. For instance, I've pretty much moved away from editing published papers in MS Word. I usually have my students type their handwritten papers straight into Blogger, and edit it there. We teachers can also leave suggestions for revisions in the comments section. Using this strategy, I hit both the creativity and collaboration goals.

I also like to point the students to the internet when they ask me a question. One site that is fun to use with a somewhat recalcitrant student is lmgtfy.com. It basically does Google searches for a person, and gives you a tinyurl link to send to that person. For an example, go to http://tinyurl.com/cgp5uv.

When searching, however, there is invariably a mountain of information to sift through. I try to model the critical thinking skills that enable me to separate the diamonds from the garbage.

Which, of course, leads me to the garbage. I also have frequent conversations about how to be a valuable contributor to human knowledge. I also call this, "How not to be an Internet troll." Again, by having frequent discussions and modeling appropriate Internet citizenship, I hope to (ever so slightly) improve the quality of the internet experience.