Technology training is ever-changing – we will never just ‘land’ and remain static.
Rye Country Day School is ready to meet the challenge. In 2016, our Technology Committee rigorously examined our own standards, together with exemplary models from peer schools across the nation. We elected to adopt the International Society of Technology Education Standards, seven interconnected bands of technology goals that circumscribe the student experience. These standards complement many teaching initiatives already underway throughout our community and support other strategic school initiatives including Diversity and Inclusion, Public Purpose, Global Studies, and S.T.E.A.M.
Teaching technology is an active and flexible undertaking. The Technology Committee, working closely with faculty and administrators, is wasting no time in implementing these standards. Indeed, safe tech and media non-profit Common Sense Media has already recognized RCDS as a ‘Common Sense School’ for its “commitment to creating a culture of digital citizenship and teaching.” And initiatives to enhance instruction and bolster teacher training across the institution continue. From curricular opportunities to clubs and after-school activities, technology is integrated into the fabric of the RCDS educational experience. “Our evolution will never be done,” says current Computer Science Department Chair Katie O’Shaughnessey. “Technology training is ever-changing – we will never just ‘land’ and remain static.”
- Creative Communicator
- Innovative Designer
- Knowledge Constructor
- Global Collaborator
- Computational Thinker
- Digital Citizen
- Empowered Learner
Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
- Choose effective platforms and tools for satisfying the desired objectives of their creation or communication.*
- Create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
- ommunicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.
- Publish or present content or products that customize the message and medium for their intended audiences.*
Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
- Know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.
- Exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.
- Develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.
- Select and use effective tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.
Students critically curate a variety of resources using effective tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
- Plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
- Evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.*
- Curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.*
- Build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.
- Contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.
- Use technologies to work with others, including peers, experts or community members, to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints.*
- Use digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, engaging with them in ways that broaden mutual understanding and learning.
- Explore local and global issues and use technologies to work with others to investigate solutions.
Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.
- Break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models, prototypes, or simulations to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.
- Understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.
- Formulate problem definitions suited for technology-assisted methods such as data analysis, abstract models and algorithmic thinking in exploring and finding solutions.*
- Collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.
Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
- Cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.
- Engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.
- Demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.
- Manage personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and be aware of data-collection technology.
- Know the repercussions on their physiological well-being resulting from overuse of technology.
Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
- Understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.*
- Articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
- Build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.*
- Use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.*
- Understand the need and process for creating redundancy and appropriate back-up of data and information.*
* Items with asterisk indicate items that the Technology Committee members from the Lower School found were not appropriate for the developmental needs of Lower School students and will only gain focus starting in the Middle School.