NETS-S Curriculum Review GaITAC Sub-Committee NETS-S Curriculum Review

Purpose for Review To determine which curriculum will best support students’ preparation for success on the 8th Grade Technology Literacy Assessment.

Four Guiding Areas CONTENT ASSESSMENT Alignment with current 8th grade assessment. Strength of remediation and tutorials (Is it simply a score\right or wrong or does the program offer feedback/further instruction based on student data?). Method of delivery – individual only, teacher led only, or combination. Rigorous grade-level appropriate materials. ASSESSMENT Reporting features – student scores/assessments, time on task, etc.? Are there incremental chances to assess or one final score?  Are assessments graded by computer or teacher? Are there multiple types of assessment?

Four Guiding Areas MANAGEMENT Time required for completion. Access to material – web-based and 24/7, server based, or CD based. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, PROGRAM INTERACTIVITY, AND MOTIVATION Audio/video components and visual graphics. Ease of use for students. Authenticity of the experience. Ability to repeat modules. Feedback to increase understanding.

Materials Reviewed Common Sense Media GaVS Digital Citizenship Modules Learning.com Microsoft Digital Literacy

Common Sense Media ADVANTAGES Free. Good lesson plans and materials for teacher led instruction. Great video examples that prompt group discussion. Strong correlation to NETS relating to Digital Citizenship. Also supports communication and research standards. Content broken down by grade level. Lots of helpful communication with parents such as tips for home use of technology. Includes online training for teachers. NETS-S alignment chart available - loosely aligned to each lesson.

Common Sense Media DISADVANTAGES No online component for students outside of videos – teacher led lessons. Time constraints on teachers to prepare additional lessons. Doesn’t cover all NETS – gaps in areas other than Digital Citizenship. Assessment is subjective. Guided discussion questions come with sample answers to help you gauge your students’ understanding of specific learning outcomes through informal classroom conversations. Each lesson also contains guidance for using project-based assessment to gauge student understanding of concepts. No data collection feature.

GaVS Digital Citizenship Modules ADVANTAGES Free. Aligned to the” Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship” (Ribble and Bailey) and the NETS-S Digital Citizenship standard. Willing to adjust content to our needs – planning a module on each NETS-S standard. Essential questions and key vocabulary. Text-based materials have “read aloud” option. User control over audio and video elements. Videos loaded fast and were appropriate and engaging. Consistency of activities and easy navigation. Alternative accessible activity content. Interactive reviews of material throughout the modules.

GaVS Digital Citizenship Modules DISADVANTAGES Reading content seems to be for young adults/adults. Content would not be engaging or understandable for younger students. No data tracking feature for teachers to use for assessment. Self Check “Quiz” questions do not provide feedback outside of the correct answer.

Learning.com ADVANTAGES (1 of 2) Variety of materials (activities, discussion, game, lessons, videos, simulations/practice, journals, quizzes, web links, etc.). EasyTech aligned to the 8th grade assessment. Great video lessons using avatars would motivate and engage students. Short amounts of information followed by self quiz. Captioned lessons good when audio is not available or for differentiation. Content is differentiated by grade levels (Mainly for K-8).

Learning.com ADVANTAGES (2 of 2) Student data available for certain lessons to track progress. Teachers can choose whole units or single lessons to preview and assign to students or create their own materials. Multiple topics are searchable by GA standards from 2006- 2009 (Older standards searchable at the element level). Web-based resources. No download required. Some materials adjust based on student results. Materials do not focus on a particular brand. Each unit has at least one “real world” assignment to complete. Multiple topics covered and students can repeat modules.

Learning.com DISADVANTAGES Cost. Many of the Internet Safety resources, especially at the HS level, link to free web-based materials. The “Find by Standard” option does not include a search option for NETS-S. Quote from site: “EasyTech has also earned the ISTE Seal of Alignment to its NETS-S 2007 student standards.” Time consuming to implement. Some of the secondary video introductions are too childish. Journal entries not submitted electronically - print to PDF or paper. Quizzes do not provide usable feedback outside of the correct answer. Tech Driven instead of learning driven by needs of the project. Would require teacher training on use and management. Quiz is 10 questions – must be able to read – no audio directions.

Microsoft Digital Literacy ADVANTAGES Free Available online or as a download. Addresses digital literacy, productivity programs, Internet safety, ethics, etc. (no objectives on bullying noted). Modules contain interactive games and self-tests (some of which provide feedback). Differentiated content (basic and advanced levels). Teacher could possibly use for whole group activities. Digital Literacy Certificate Test provides personal learning plan upon completion steering students back to modules. Scores and assessments are provided to the end-user.

Microsoft Digital Literacy DISADVANTAGES Mainly text-based – very little audio/video components noted. Not motivating for students. Simulated exercises lacked authenticity. Only Microsoft specific products covered. Data/reports not available for the teacher. eLearning requires updated Internet Explorer browser. Takes several minutes for eLearning Viewer to load. No documented NETS-S alignment noted although it covers some standards. No grade level(s) identified for materials. Designed with an adult audience in mind. Difficult to navigate back to Home screen. Time consuming to implement.

Conclusions These materials were all very different in regard to content addressed, delivery format, and audience. We would like to review other materials such as Edvation TechSteps. Since GaVS is planning additional NETS-S aligned modules and would work to meet our needs, it would be helpful to research possibilities for data collection with this platform. If we had to select one of these four without considering further options, we would choose Learning.com.

Input from GaITAC What are your thoughts? Shall we review more options and research GaVS further?