ISTE Standards

ISTE defines creativity as creative thinking, constructing knowledge, developing innovative products, and processes using technology.  As educators we can facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by teaching them a variety of technology tools, tips, apps,  and websites.   The next step is to provide them with opportunities to choose/ use the tools they have learned to create a project related to their curriculum that they are studying. The hardest part about this is finding the time to let the kids do this, and all of the planning that goes into it. A project that I had my students do this quarter was to create a digital picture book at Storybird.com.  One of our genre's for 4th quarter is writing a "How To".  So I created a jump code for this site which made it easy for them to access.  Then I showed them a short tutorial on how to navigate the site.  Next I showed the students a "How To" picture book that I created on the site.  They were allowed to choose whatever "How To" topic that they wanted.  Now let's take a look at how this project relates to the ISTE Standards.

     1. Creativity and Innovation-They created an original work, but it followed a "How To " model. A new product was created, but trends were not identified.
     2. Communication and Collaboration - The project was used to communicate, but no collaboration took place because they did it independently, and it was one form of media.
     3. Research and information fluency - The students didn't have to do any research for this project.
     4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making - The students did do some critical thinking skills when choosing their topic because they had to think about something that they could do, or make well. They didn't have to collect and analyze data.
      5. Digital Citizenship - The students needed to demonstrate digital citizenship when making their digital "How TO" picture book. They had to practice internet safety by staying on the site, and were positive about the learning taking place.
     6. Technology operations and Concepts - The students needed to use the Dell lap tops and the web site Storybird.com to Make their digital "How To" picture book.  Trouble shooting is nothing new to our students because they have to do that every day with the Dells.   They all understood how to use the site.