This topic is increasingly important with the advent of the Common Core standards because the demand for teachers to integrate technology into their core curriculum is more pressing than ever. Districts are adopting technology initiatives on a large scale and teachers are developing new techniques and skills to implement these initiatives. More teachers delivering content online means more students are becoming active online. I would suggest that digital literacy needs to encompass more than just the definition above; digital literacy needs to include the social behaviors that students and teachers need to embrace to protect their online identities, reputations, and to maintain a safe, healthy, and productive profile online.

It is my professional belief that digital literacy and digital citizenship should be integrated early and often in our core curriculum throughout each school year and at every grade level. Common Sense Media has a wealth of information and resources, from the Digital Passport program for 3rd through 5th grades, to their new Digital Bytes program for teens. Common Sense also offers Graphite for Educators. Graphite is a site featuring technology enriched lesson flows (lesson plans) and they feature several on Digital Citizenship and Literacy.

Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship are simply life skills that every individual needs in the 21st century. Introducing and reinforcing these skills in school as well as at home simply makes sense for kids.

With the adoption of the Common Core Standards that have rigorous technology embedded throughout at every grade level, districts and teachers across the country are working diligently to integrate technology into their curriculum. This is an exciting time to be an educator because of the great wealth of free resources available online. However, it can also be an overwhelming task to sort through the many apps and online resources that are available to teachers, in many ways it’s like drinking from a fire hose. So how do teachers know what’s good and what’s not so good without trying it? Where can teachers get solid ideas for integrating technology into their content? As a teacher, I have been down this road and I found that quantity is not necessarily the answer; a few high quality resources can be all that it takes to transform one’s teaching. I have provided a description and a link to a few of my favorite student and teacher tools.

Prezi - Publishing and Collaboration

Prezi is cloud based presentation software. Prezi operates like a large canvas and up to ten users can sign in and co-edit at once. Users can embed images, videos, and text to and then set a navigation path from one object to the next. The result is a thrill ride in story telling and presentation! Let your students bring their content to life using Prezi!

http://prezi.com/

Timetoast - Publishing of Chronological Information

Time Toast is a great site for students and teachers to create interactive timelines. Students can create timelines for historical figures or significant events, or teachers can find existing timelines to support lessons.

https://www.timetoast.com/

WordItOut - Publishing and Creativity

WordItOut allows users to make word clouds, I particularly like that students can revise and edit the look of their word clouds. Word clouds are fun a publishing option for a variety of subjects. Word clouds are handy as profile pictures, ways to collect and display vocabulary, or users can use a tilde (~) to connect phrases, for example a word cloud of metaphors found in a piece of literature can be a fun and creative project for students to create. Also, repeating a word or term affects the size of the word in the cloud, so more important words can be made to display more prominently. Word clouds can be shared or turned in via a link from the WordItOut gallery or students can take a screenshot.

http://worditout.com/word-cloud/make-a-new-one

Thatquiz - Quiz Generator

Thatquiz.org makes it easy to quiz students on a variety of topics. Teachers can create custom quizzes or use existing content and set proficiency levels for students. Students can save their progress and continue on another day and see their score at the end of an exam. I used Thatquiz as a daily warm up of common SAT vocabulary, my students were able to start their quiz, save their progress and continue the next day. Thatquiz also features in-depth content on geography, mathematics, foreign languages and English vocabulary. Teachers can also search for shared quizzes created by other teachers.

https://www.thatquiz.org/

ProCon.Org - Research and Resources

ProCon.Org is a site devoted to evaluating multiple perspectives of many of today's controversial topics. This is an excellent source when teaching writing and persuasive argument.

http://www.procon.org/

American Rhetoric - Research and Resources

AmericanRhetoric.Com is an online catalog of the most famous American speeches delivered by historically significant citizens over the history of the United States.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

Lit2Go - Literature Online

Lit2Go is a collection of k-12 classic literature that includes web format, audio files and pdf files. Users can search the collection by reading levels, genre and collections.

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/

ReadWriteThink - Student Interactives and Teacher Resources

Sponsored by the International Reading Association and NCTE, ReadWriteThink provides a wealth of resources for educators at every grade level. The site offers student interactives, lesson plans based on specific literature. ReadWriteThink features rich search and filtering tools to help teachers find just the right activities for their units of study.

http://www.readwritethink.org/

Shmoop - Student Interactives and Teacher Resources

Shmoop is study guide central! Shmoop provides a new way for students to build background knowledge on nearly any topic by having them search Shmoop for some key details. Shmoop is edgy, fun and provides pop culture connections to make the details more relevant to young scholars. Shmoop offers study guides and support on literature, history, sciences, and mathematics. Additionally, for a fee, teachers or students can access even more content.

Graphite - Teacher Resources

Graphite offers reviews on apps and online classroom resources. Reviews are written by classroom teachers who have used the tools. Graphite also features Lesson flows, called App Flows, to illustrate how certain tools can be used in a blended classroom teaching environment.

https://www.graphite.org/

The SAMR model is a description of the typical phases teachers progress through as they begin to integrate technology into their curriculum. The steps refer to Substitution, Modification, Augmentation, and Redefinition. The SAMR model was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura.

The phases of the model are fairly straightforward in terms of tech integration. Teachers generally look for new technology related ways to do what they have been doing. For instance learning new vocabulary is a fundamental activity and a part of most content areas. When introducing new vocabulary, teachers may have students look up the definitions online in order to integrate technology, this is an example of Substitution because the teacher is substituting an online dictionary versus a physical dictionary. As the teacher and students become more comfortable, they may adapt this process and create online collaborative discussions using the vocabulary or by creating an illustration to make the new vocabulary more meaningful to learners, this is an example of Augmentation. Over time, the teacher may become more creative and find new resources or methods to support students learning activities by having students create visuals for their new vocabulary, this is the Modification phase and represents a distinct shift in the transformation of the educational activities to become very student driven through creation of content by the student. The final phase is Redefinition, where the former processes are completely replaced by new activities that are student centered and driven by students’ creating products to demonstrate their knowledge of subject matter. In the Modification and Redefinition phases, students are using technology for the “...creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable.” (Puentedura, 2009).

The bottom line is that teaching well with technology will lead to transformational teaching and learning. To learn more about the SAMR model, click HERE.

Works Cited

"Introduction to the SAMR Model." Introduction to the SAMR Model Video. Web. 29 Oct. 2014. <https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/introduction-to-the-samr-model>.

"Ruben R. Puentedura's Weblog." Ruben R. Puentedura's Weblog. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/>.

"SAMR." Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html>.