Monica Burns, an edTech and curriculum consultant, shared with Edutopia several tips for educators on how to best use technology to help students learn Common Core standards and therefore learn the best ways to be prepared for college and career.

"As we prepare students for life beyond the classroom, including digital tools in our instruction and making connections to technology in the real world is absolutely essential," Burns said, according to the article.

Though Common Core standards do include the need for technology use, they give educators the flexibility on how to meet the digital skills of their students, which can be an overwhelming task given the continuous influx of new education technology. Burns gives educators some guidelines on how to put their best tech foot forward.

Her first tip revolves around educators can best make use of multimedia learning, a requirement in the English Language Arts (ELA) Anchor Standards of the Common Core,

"As a classroom teacher, I shared multimedia clips to help students make meaning of information, and I held them accountable for the content presented. Using graphic organizers to synthesize information presented in a BrainPop video is one strategy that I used to create a purpose for viewing multimedia," she said.

(For those unfamiliar, Brainpop is an animated educational site for kids that covers a wide range of subjects and topics.)

When it comes to specifically creating multimedia presentations, Burns said, " [t]echnology tools can help students create digital media. Depending on the task that you give students, they might make graphs with Numbers for Mac or a step-by-step tutorial with the screencasting app Explain Everything."

Burns also gives suggestions for educators to use technology to empower students as writers.

"There are a variety of kid-friendly publishing tools that provide options for teachers looking to support Common Core instruction with technology. Adobe Slate and Book Creator  are two powerful publishing apps for tablets that can be tailored to different writing types including narrative, opinion, and explanatory."

And because text is now a mix of digital and print resources, Burns argues that educators should make it a priority that their students be able to read text across different kinds of devices.

This is their new normal, and schools must include a balance of print and digital texts in their instruction. For my fifth grade students, I would connect a variety of informational text to QR codes for them to scan and access on their iPads. There are many great digital text resources for students at all grade levels. I used Scholastic News and Time For Kids in my classroom and would recommend exploring them.

"Teachers can help students develop digital skills and incorporate technology while addressing the needs of their students. If we truly want students to be college and career ready, the thoughtful integration of technology into daily instruction is a non-negotiable," she said, according to the article.

Read Burns' full list of tips here and comment your thoughts in the comment section below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

07/06/2015