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Emma Rozario
College of Southern Nevada
2 July, 2017
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To whom it regards at Clark County School District,

I am writing to you in concern for the school of ABC Community. Our school has been a
leader in the district for many years now. We have been a leader because of our students, who
tirelessly work and make us, the teachers, look good. We have been a leader because our
administration staff excels and work tremendously to make this school a caring and safe learning
environment. However, we have also been a leader because the technology we have had the
privilege of incorporating into our curriculum has made a huge impact on our schools students
and teaching abilities. Schools in the Clark County School District have worked hard and
budgeted carefully in order to have the financial backing to supply the school with technology
that can aid in learning. Our school is very fortunate to have the technology such as laptops,
scanners, graphic tablets, digital science probes, PDAs and printers, ebooks, smart boards,
projectors, and many others that have undoubtedly benefited our school and the children who
inhabit it. However, it has been made clear to our administration and staff that this technology
will be no longer accessible because of the looming budget cuts and pressure from National,
State, and Local education agencies. This news devastated all those who heard, because we are
aware of all those it will hurt. No longer with those with learning disabilities be able to be on an
equal playing with with those who arent disabled, for it was technology that helped them. In the
article Technology in Todays Classroom, Hicks states that technology has provided students
with severe disabilities many rehabilitative tools that aid them in gaining cognitive and physical
skills and abilities. Students with disabilities often rely on technology to function in everyday
life. Do we, as a school fully capable of giving them the advantage of technology, want to
deprive them of it? Clark County School District is trying to kick technology out, and
concentrate on only the topics that are needed to pass standardized multiple choice performance
exams. However, the article by Hicks also explores Virginias goal. Virginia recently
implemented a statewide technology program in which schools received two extra technology
personnel for every 1,000 students (Coffman 2009). The overarching goal of the program was to
improve student achievement through the integration of technology into daily instruction. Results
indicated a statewide increase in standardized test scores for the state of Virginia. Technology is
not a burden. Technology is not a waste of the districts money. Technology is an incredible
advancement that really does aid in helping children learn, and even pass the standardized tests
that the Clark County School District is so concerned about. Using different teaching strategies
is vital, for no child learns the same. Access to the technology we have at ABC Community
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helps in offering that variety in teaching strategies. In John Deweys article, A Voice From The
Past Calls For Classroom Technology, his research showed that 86% of the respondents said
they believed the Internet was a valuable means for teaching and learning in schools and that it
was a vital tool for developing the skills for the next century. We, as a school, need to prepare
children for the real world and real life situations. Every workplace has technology, every future
school they will attend has technology, and their homes are often equipped with technology. We
are putting children at a disadvantage by not having technology integrated into our curriculum.
Abandoning our use of technology will be abandoning the students, which abandons the parents
who send their children to our school because they trust us to have our best intentions in mind
and to give their children the best education we can. Can we honestly look them in the eyes and
tell them we are doing that once technology is cut out of the school?
Sincerely,
Emma Rozario
Technology Standards

There are technology standards at the District, State, and National Level. These standards impact
educational instruction across all grade levels, and these standards impact instructional choices.

The Computer and Technology Education Standards that are found at

http://ccsd.net/resources/math-instructional-tech/computer-performance.pdf (Links to an external
site.) explore the standards for grades 3, 5, 8, and 12. These standards were published in 2000.
For grade 3, the standards range from making multimedia documents, explaining the differences
between a network and stand-alone computer system, composing and editing word processed
documents, can use various technology tools for research and evaluation, and managing the
tools and resources technology has to offer. Standards for grade 3 also include knowing the
components that technology systems are made up of, and its relationship with other systems, and
evaluating the impact and ethical implication of technology on society, the individuals, and the
environment. The technology standards for grade 5 include using productivity tools such as word
processing, spreadsheets, multimedia, and others, research information and solve problems,
designing and developing products/projects using the tools and processes, and distinguishing the
difference between open, closed, simple, complex, micro and macro systems. In grade 5,
students also need to meet the standard of creating a project to meet a human need or want, and
explore and explain the changes in information technology as well as the impacts these changes
have on society. Grade 8 standards get even more complex with designing problem solving
methods in an innovative approach, typing without looking at the kets, creating multipage
multimedia presentations, and explaining the knowledge of LAN connectivity through Ethernet,
infrared, and others are just some examples of the standards. In grade 12, students are expected
to identify a problem and apply an optimized problem-solving method. design a database form
utilizing the drawing features, uses telecommuting and teleconferencing, in-depth research along
with a bibliography, correct non-functioning technology systems, and predict the future
evolution of a system or process are a few examples. Meeting these standards alone will be
difficult to integrate into the curriculum of other standards from other topics. These standards
also have to be blended with the standards from CompTechStandardsNEVADA.pdf. These
standards are pretty similar to the ones from, except they include standards such as
demonstrating personal responsibility for lifelong learning, transferring current knowledge to
learning of new technologies, and developing cultural understanding and global awareness by
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engaging with learners of other cultures. Instead of grades 3, 5, 8, and 12, these standards have
grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. These standards are more recent, for they were adopted in 2010. The ISTE
standards found at http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students, consist of 7 standards
for the students. One thing that stood out in these standards is the creative communication, which
encourages the student to creatively express themselves. Like the other two lists of standards,
these encourage problem solving and learning and working in an interconnected digital world.
What was similar between the ISTE standards and the Comp Tech Standards of Nevada were the
encouragement of broadening their perspectives and collaborating and working together.

The standard that will be met in Section 4 is: 2.C.2.1

Use digital resources to learn about places, people, celebrations, and maps.

Lesson Plan

Name of lesson: The Virtual Field Trip!

Grade Level Appropriateness: 5th grade

Technology Content Standard Addressed: 2.C.2.1 Use digital resources to learn about
places, people, celebrations, and maps.

Other Content Standard Addressed: (5)9.3 give organized reports that demonstrate a clear
point of view and incorporate multi-media

aids as needed for enhancement [NS/PS 9.5.3]

1.0 The World in Spatial Terms Students use maps, globes, and other geographic tools and
technologies to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.

Objective: Lesson objectives are the specific outcomes you are hoping to achieve in the lesson
that is being taught at that specific time.

-Students will be able to navigate through Google Earth on the computer and record their
observations.

-Students will be able to research the culture of that country, and record their research.

-Students will be able to put together, in a group, an organized powerpoint report that contains
their Google Earth observation, holidays the culture celebrates, the traditional food, and 5
interesting facts about that culture.

Materials needed to facilitate the lesson:

-Computers

-Powerpoint
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-Microsoft

-Google Chrome

Suggested group size: 4 to 5 students per group

Procedures: (Step by step narrative for implementation of the lesson.)

-Introduce lesson: Students! Today I am going to show you how to navigate through Google
Earth. How many of you have been on it before? I know we have explored our Earth as a class,
but today you will be exploring on your own, so you need to know how to do this.

-*Show them as you explain*

-First, open Google Chrome. Google Earth will not work on safari, so make sure you open
Chrome. Next, you type in Google Earth into your search bar, and click on your first link, and
then a screen will pop up. Click on the first link titles Launch Google Earth. Once it is done
leading, click on the search symbol in the left hand column. Type in a city in another country, or
the country itself.

-While you explore that country, I want you to take notes of your observations. You can take
notes in Microsoft Word. Note if it green, if there are a lot of building, if it is flat or
mountainous. Can you see a lot of people? Are there many roads? Bodies of water? Things like
that.

-Once you are finished, I want you to go to Google. I want you to research these five questions:
*Write them on board*

1. What holidays does the country celebrate?

2. What is the traditional food of this country?

3. 5 interesting facts about the culture?

- Next, I want you to, as a group, put together a powerpoint with everything we talked about:

- Your observations of the country

- The three questions on the board

- and I want you to add pictures! Of the country, of the food, of the people

- Does everyone understand the project? Does anyone have any questions?

- Excellent. Please get into groups of 4 or 5- no more and no less!

- Each group will be presenting when the project is finished. If you have any questions, raise
your and and I will come to you, or feel free to come to me!
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For presentations:

Have students open their power points on the computer attached to the projector or big screen.

Assessment: (Tell how you will specifically grade student work or progress.) Review the
assessment material within our text, or from the textbook you used during your Intro courses at
CSN so that you can clearly define the method you will use for assessment of the lesson.

The students will be graded on their ability to use technology to gather the information needed.
Their cooperation with one another and team work will be taken into account when grading. Put
grades into the online grade book, and note why they got the score they did incase questions
arise. Also hand out evaluations to each group at the end, stating their grade and complimenting
the good, while advising if they should of included something or changed something.

Sources cited in the letter:

Hicks, Stephanie Diamond. "Technology in Today's Classroom: Are You a Tech-Savvy

Teacher?." Clearing House, vol. 84, no. 5, Sept. 2011, pp. 188-191. EBSCOhost, doi:
10.1080/00098655.2011.557406.

Kilfoye, Charles. "A Voice from the past Calls for Classroom Technology." Phi Delta Kappan,
vol. 94, no. 7, Apr. 2013, pp. 53-56. EBSCOhost,
ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d
b=aph&AN=86877076&site=ehost-live.