PROFESSIONAL
Rigor, Relevance, & Relationships
Integrating Academics into the Computer Education Classroom
The pressure on computer education teachers has never been greater. In addition to preparing students for a successful career in the real world, you may be asked to rework your curriculum to meet No Child Left Behind legislation. Or you may be asked to teach a new course with which you are unfamiliar.
If you are feeling pressure to rework your computer education curriculum, step back and look again. With the techniques shown here, your transition to seamless skills integration will go much more smoothly than your last network upgrade!
Know What You Are Already Doing Well
When you look at your curriculum with fresh eyes, you may realize that you are already on the right track when it comes to integrating key academic skills into your lesson plan. For example, by explaining proper online research techniques, online ethics, and citations, you are reinforcing skills that students also need to master for their academic courses. Also, by working with a language arts teacher to create rubrics for assessment, you can set consistent expectations for written work.
Similarly, you may already be teaching high-level math concepts in your unit on Excel spreadsheets. By calling attention to these concepts when they arise, students can understand them in context. When you ask students to solve problems and explain their results, you encourage critical thinking and verbal communication skills.
Encourage Project-Based and Cooperative Learning
The computer education classroom is an ideal environment for project-based learning. Projects give crucial real-world context to your curriculum, and most projects can be tailored to various learning styles. By using a variety of short projects and long-term portfolio projects, you can reinforce important technical skills and teach students to transition between working independently and working with others.
Students often learn better when they create tangible products that have academic connections as well as job-skills connections. For example, your instruction of PowerPoint allows students to use important presentation skills that are crucial to real-world success. Students can bring all of their knowledge together in portfolio projects. An example project from the Glencoe iCheck series asks students to use PowerPoint, Word, and Excel to plan all phases of a community cleanup day. Visit the Technology Solutions page to view the project.
Support Student Success
Helping students understand "real life" connections is a tall order, and any solution that integrates rigor, relevance, and relationships in the classroom must be manageable. Glencoe's iCheck™ program integrates academic skills, study skills, and project-based learning opportunities with the teaching of technical skills. For example, a Reading Guide page from our iCheck™ Series Microsoft® Office 2007 book helps students prepare to get the most out of the each lesson. It includes reading strategies and writing activities to support students' academic success. It also includes Study Skills, which emphasize the importance of developing good study habits. The Reading Guide also helps educators see the national language arts and math standards covered in each lesson at a glance. In addition to these resources, the iCheck™ Series Microsoft® Office 2007 program includes several activities and assessments on its Online Learning Center. For example, Presentation and Publishing Projects, Real-World Business Projects, and Academic Projects ask students to use applications in the Office suite to solve academic and real-world problems.
