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Regardless of our personal familiarity with technology all teachers must all start by becoming familiar with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Program of Studies. This is a provincial requirement for all teachers, especially in  core subjects.

  

 Find Your Personal Starting Point

After becoming familiar with the mandated curriculum it is important to be able to assess your own personal starting point.  

A good starting point would be to recognize that 

  1. We are not all starting with the same personal technology skills. 

  2. Consequently there are several possible entry levels for technology integration. 

Understanding that people are at different stages of personal use makes us realize that there must be also be corresponding levels of integration of technology.  So a good beginning would be to identify your own current stage of technology use. These 2 links can provide a background to this theory. Using different terms they both define 4 similar stages of computer use: The non user, the beginner, the intermediate user and the expert.

The following starting points may be useful for each of the 4 stages: 

Stage  1 - The Non-user

Stage 1 teachers (non-users) need to start learning how to use basic technology productivity tools for personal as well as professional use.  

  1. Visit our Teacher Technology Skills Web page to determine the requirements for your teaching assignment. 
      
  2. Build basic technology skills:
  3. Familiarize yourself with the PD facilities at 2learn.ca: 

Stage  2  - Beginners

Stage 2 teachers use the computer for personal reasons and can give students appropriate internet links for research purposes.  

NOTE: The ICT program of studies does not require elementary students to use search engines.  It is therefore neither necessary nor recommended that elementary students use search engines. It is much safer and a much better use of classroom time for teacher to select the appropriate sites and bookmark them for students. However, an even better (and far less time consuming) solution is to make a document with active links and explicit instructions regarding what should be done at the site and save it as an html page or as a template in a shared folder where all students can easily access the same document simultaneously.  For Jr. High students student-friendly search engines are appropriate. 

Try using

Stage 3 - Intermediate Users

Stage 3 teachers are ready to use the computer to accomplish traditional tasks.

  1. www.2learn resources
  2. Use the Illustrative Examples 
      
  3. Locate sample Lesson Plans on the Internet to model ways of integrating technology
      
  4. Try some subject starter ideas

    K-3 Topic Links

    Kids Love 2learn

    7-12 Topic Links

    2learn for teens

    3-6 Topic Links Ask an Expert K-12

  5. Teachers can use the Inquiry process to integrate many ICT outcomes into classroom learning. 

Stage 4 - Experts

Stage 4 teachers uses the computer with students in new ways, to collaborate, communicate, manage information, construct meaning and solve problems

  1. Visit the one of the Project Registries  to 
    • participate in existing Internet collaborative projects with students or
    • initiate new collaborative Internet projects and receiving funding. 

    Project registries may be found at:

  2. Communicating and Collaborative Learning may be acomplished using email exchanges such as: 

    However, it is essential that teachers monitor email use as well as teach students how to use the tools safely.  Free Webmail such as hot mail are discouraged for student use since teachers cannot monitor its usage. 

Since April 26th, 2004