RD90: COLLEGE READING
I teach a reading course at my community college. After the first few terms teaching it, I realized the course needed work. The department acquired many of its assessments for the class from a publisher, but the assessments often did not match the learning objectives. To better align the course with its objectives, I designed new assessments. With these changes, the class is much more rewarding for students. Below, I detail how the course aligns with several ISTE standards.
ISTE 1
LEARNING & CREATIVITY
1A
VIDEOS AND DISCUSSION
Firstly, my reading course promotes, supports, and models creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness. It achieves this through the use of creative instructional videos, and a discussion prompt that encourages creative responses.
1B
ASSIGNMENTS
The assignments (example) engage students in exploring real world issues; they have to read articles pertaining to politics or technology that shape their lives--and it asks them to solve authentic problems (like how to take notes online) using digital tools and resources. These include online practice exercises and Adobe Reader as an annotation tool.
1C
WEEK 4 DISCUSSION
The discussion prompt also promotes student reflection using a collaborative tool to clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.
1D
COURSE-WIDE
Throughout the course, I plan to model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students and guiding the discussion forum.
ISTE 2
DIGITAL LEARNING & ASSESSMENTS
2A
DIGITAL TOOLS
This course adapts learning experiences using digital tools: instead of annotating articles by hand, students use Adobe Reader to leave comments and to practice the skills they learn each week.
2D
SUMMATIVE AND FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
Overall, the course provides students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments; formative assessments are in the form of self checks to help students learn the concepts, and for summative assessments, students must complete article annotations and participate in discussions.
ISTE 3
DIGITAL WORK & LEARNING
3B
COLLABORATION
Throughout the course, I will also use discussion boards to collaborate with students and to support their success.
3C
EMERGING DIGITAL TOOLS
I have students use online annotation tools to facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools. Students use these tools to analyze, evaluate, and use online articles to support research and learning.
ISTE 4
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP & RESPONSIBILITY
CREATIVE COMMONS MATERIAL
Throughout this course, I model safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources (ISTE 4A). I accomplish this by properly citing the source of imagery and music and using only public domain material, as demonstrated in the images below.
4A
 |  |
|---|---|
 |
4B
ACCESSIBILITY
Designing the course, I ensured that my videos include captions and transcripts (example). Additionally, I add ALT tags to all of my images. In this way, I address the diverse needs of all learners by providing equitable access to appropriate resources.