The Need for Technology in The Classroom in an Elementary School

The Colorado Department of Education doesn't have any standards for Technology before High School years; and still then, the Secondary Computer Science Standards is voluntary. Because of this, many students might get their first encounter with educational technology only in High School. However, students are in touch with technology tools everyday. Therefore, we, as a school, need to provide understanding and support on how to use this technology to serve our students' learning. Once the "how to" is established, our goal is to work on skills like :I will be able to access digital content (audio, video) to build background knowledge and investigate topics. I will be able to use digital templates, graphic organizers and/or storyboards to record questions and plan investigations. (ISTE Standards from Washington State)

Then at this point, technology becomes a tool and not an end; a tool that get a thoughtful place in the curriculum and lessons planning. Another aspect of technology is the area of computational thinking. The International Society for Technology in Education defines Computational Thinking as "an approach to solving a problem that empowers the integration of digital technologies with human ideas. It does not replace an emphasis on creativity, reasoning and critical thinking, but it re-emphasizes those skills while highlighting ways to organize a problem so that a computer can help. It extends and refocuses human creativity and critical thinking by allowing the computer to extend and refocus one’s problem-solving capacity. ” Computational thinking is a solving-problem process that gives students tools to organize, identify, analyze and produce a solution. It provides the student an array of angles to tackles problems and all these skills involved during this process are transferable in any kind of subjects, not only in STEAM. A broader set of skills, less visible, is also developed during this process : perseverance in front of a problem, tolerance for ambiguity, ability to face open-ending problems, ability to communicate so seek support and work in a team, creativity, collaboration, etc. Students are able to start coding at a very younger age and build this mindset.

On a wider level to bring computer science and coding to students at a younger age is a good way to work against the gender gap which is still a reality today.