The educational paradigm has changed. New guidelines (most recently, the National Board of Governors Common Core Standards) expect technology to facilitate learning through collaboration, publishing, and transfer of knowledge. Educators want students to use technology to work together, share the products of their effort, and employ the skills learned in other parts of their lives.
If you purchased SL’s Fourth Edition, consider the tech changes in education since its 2011 publication:
- Windows has updated their platform—twice
- iPads are the device of choice in the classroom
- Class Smartboards are more norm than abnorm(al)
- Technology in the classroom has changed from ‘nice to have’ to ‘must have’
- 1:1 has become a realistic goal
- Student research is as often done online as in the library
- Students spend as much time in a digital neighborhood as their home town
- Textbooks are considered resources rather than bibles
- Teachers who don’t use technology are an endangered species
- Words like ‘blended learning’, ‘authentic’, ‘transfer’, ‘evidence’ are now integral to teaching
- Common Core Standards have swept like a firestorm through the education community, most timed to take effect after 2011
Here’s what you’ll find in the SL Technology Curriculum–5th Edition (see slideshow below):
