2Modern Childhood ClassroomThe Curricu.docx

2
Modern Childhood Classroom
The Curriculum of the Modern Early Childhood Classroom
Lisa Bertie
ECE/311
Instructor Amanda Dixon
April 2, 2012
The Curriculum of the Modern Early Childhood Classroom
The age group that this curriculum is designed for is
Kindergarten. The age range for kindergarten is five through
seven.
There are many learning styles for example there are auditory
leaners, visual learners, tactile learners, and those who learn
best through reading the information. As teachers we must take

this into account when developing a curriculum. It is important
to begin teaching kindergarten age children the beginning skills
of math, reading, science, music, and art. By making sure that
the content is age appropriate and that the information is
presented in a variety of ways so that students of different
learning styles have the opportunity to absorb the information in
the way that is easiest for them to learn. If we look at the
different learning theories we will find one that makes the most
sense to us as individuals for example I find the developmental
theories of Jean Piaget to be very meaningful and will
incorporate his theories into how I present information to the
students.
I plan on including time for learning through play, circle time,
and traditional teaching methods to communicate information
and teach skills to the students. I think it is also important to
make sure that the classroom is a safe learning environment.
When dealing with a large group of individuals there are many
different personalities in play and there can be conflict as a
result. I feel it is important the make sure that the students
understand that they do not have to like everyone in the class
but they need to show each other respect.
My plan for a productive classroom environment includes
making sure all learning styles are addressed and students have
a safe interesting classroom.
References
Barnett, W. S. (2008). Growing and learning in preschool
[Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or10f-YcM8Q
First School. (n.d.). Music theme preschool activities and crafts.
Retrieved from http://www.first-school.ws/THEME/music.htm
Ginsburg, H.P., Lee, J.S., Boyd, J.S. (2008). Mathematics
Education for Young Children: What It Is and How to Promote
It. Social Policy Report. Retrieved from
http://www.srcd.org/documents/publications/spr/22-
1_early_childhood_math.pdf
Thomas, A.M. (2011). Hands-on science with squishy circuits.

Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/annmarie_thomas_squishy_circuits.ht
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5Dynamic Curriculum and Instruction in the
21st Century
Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Identify elements of creativity in existing face-to-face and
online learning curriculum.
2. Implement problem-based learning experiences with students
that incorporate real-world
audiences.
3. Prepare an argument to integrate the nine elements of digital
citizenship in the curriculum for
an audience of school and district leaders.
4. Assemble examples of teacherpreneurship from web-based
networks, and share with profes-
sional colleagues.
5. Prioritize Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ list of proposals for ensuring

the success of technology integra-
tion in a learning community with your local context in mind.
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Chapter Introduction
A 9th-grade team of history and social studies teachers is
preparing to upgrade the curricu-
lum to address Common Core writing standards as well as
International Society for Technol-

ogy in Education standards for the next five years. Two
members of the team have attended
Common Core workshops; two members use digital technology
regularly in their classes; and
two teachers have no experience with either but are considered
subject-matter and assess-
ment experts in the department. Curriculum planning must be
completed in three months.
Team members are wondering where to begin.
The title of this chapter uses the word dynamic to describe
curriculum and instruction today.
The field is shifting ground as new perspectives emerge on what
constitutes knowledge, how
curriculum is packaged, and where new information matters
most. The opening vignette signals
the varying types of knowledge and experience that teacher
teams and departments face as they
consider what curriculum for meaningful learning looks like in
the 21st century.
The players are also changing. Experts are no longer based
solely in laboratories or universi-
ties; teachers are no longer housed solely in traditional
classrooms; learners are evident across
age spans and job descriptions. In curriculum and instruction,
policy, practice, and research
are increasingly intertwined, with the players crossing
boundaries and contributing to multiple
domains. Content cannot be separated from practice;
educational research is subject to political
and economic pressures; and ultimately, all of these facets are
being radically transformed by
the integration of technology.
At the same time, as we begin the 21st century, there has been

an increasing dependence on
standards and standardization of curriculum. The role of the
federal government increased
through the 2001 No Child Left Behind legislation and the 2011
Race to the Top initiative in the
effort to provide benchmarks for addressing learning gaps for
English learners, minorities, and
students in poor, underserved communities.
The standards movement has evolved into the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) in math-
ematics and English language arts and the International Society
for Technology in Education
(ISTE) standards. These new standards hold promise for
ensuring that all students are ready for
the challenges of the next century.
This chapter proposes four key concepts that inform this
dynamic stance in curriculum and
instruction:
1. Curriculum must engage students in creativity and making
real-world products; such pro-
cesses constitute purposeful work that involves learners in
problem-based learning.
2. Authentic audience and student voice in local and global
communities of practice are
crucial to teaching and learning in the modern world. Such an
approach to curriculum and
instruction requires careful attention to digital-citizenship
learning among teachers and
students.
3. Deliberate practice and teachers’ intentional use of effective
teaching strategies contribute

to deep and flexible understanding of content.
4. Curriculum content is integrative and discipline-specific. As
such, the process of backward
curriculum design incorporates curriculum mapping standards in
specific contexts for
diverse learners.
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These concepts are redefining what is taught and how it is
taught. In this chapter, Alan Novem-
ber tells stories of real students who embrace projects they have

created because they see those
projects as meaningful and purposeful work. Similarly, Nel
Noddings’ article emphasizes the
need for creativity and the opportunities for students to actively
create in a standards-based
era. Educational technologist Adam Bellow challenges
educators to think about what it means
to work in a start-up culture as a learning environment and how
social networks and online
access give students genuine collaborative space for what he
calls the “maker movement.”
November and Bellow are part of the collective of educational
technologists who are shaping
and reshaping the dialogue about curriculum and instruction.
The chapter furthers that conver-
sation with work from Boss and Krauss, McGonigal, and Ribble,
whose thinking informs the four
concepts shaping a dynamic field in the 21st century.
The decades of work by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
continue to provide guidance for educa-
tors as these two leaders conceptualize curriculum making as a
process of backward design.
Their most recent work links that notion to CCSS. Deliberate
practice and the need for research-
based, effective teaching strategies emerge from the influence
of Robert Marzano, who has had
enormous impact on teacher professional development, school
leadership, and approaches to
teacher evaluation. The applications of these pedagogical
approaches are numerous; the specif-
ics deserve critical and conscientious discussion. The chapter
closes with a look at Heidi Hayes
Jacobs’ grounded work on mapping as a means to address
coherent, multidimensional, and

technology-integrated curriculum.
Voices From the Field: Remembering the Power of the Arts
in 21st Century Curriculum
Susan Hyatt is the Arts Integration Project Manager for the
Palm Beach County School District
in West Palm Beach, Florida. She provides professional
development for teachers in the district
related to arts embedded teaching that is consistent with
Common Core Standards and conducts
program evaluations for arts organizations in partnership with
schools.
Multiliteracy, including visual literacy, keeps coming up in a
lot of the work that we’re
doing in arts integration, and it’s embedded in Common Core.
They’re using all the strate-
gies that we teach them, such as making inferences, predictions.
That’s creativity. They’re
wondering “what if,” they’re using their own judgment, their
own logic to create an idea, to
create a scenario. That’s all part of Common Core. Integrating
technology just brings more
possibilities into the classroom; you can find any work of art,
music, performance in the
world and make it accessible for critical response, enhancing
multiliteracy.
The biggest thing that we find in the field is that teachers say
that curriculum integration
and using technology takes more time. Once you know what
you’re doing, it actually takes
less time. If you’re addressing a standard and you’re teaching a
critical-thinking strategy or
a problem-solving strategy and you’re using a work of art and

you’re also teaching a skill in
an academic content area, you’re also giving students an
opportunity to use their own voice
as part of the learning process. The students become colearners,
coteachers; they take on
part of the time management, because they make those
connections for you.
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Section 5.1 TED Talk
5.1 TED Talk, by Alan November
Introduction
The first reading for this chapter is the partial transcript of a
TED Talk given in 2011 by Alan
November. November is a Harvard-University–trained
educational technologist and consultant.
He is best known for his two books, Empowering Students With
Technology and Who Owns the
Learning? Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age.
In his TED talk, November tells stories about his former
students and the evolution of his think-
ing about learning that resulted in a course he called
“Community Problem Solving With Tech-
nology.” He explains how enthusiastic students become when
they discern a problem and apply
the appropriate tools to solve that problem for real audiences,
rather than using tools in isola-
tion and hoping to be able to apply them sometime later.
November’s experiences contribute to the larger discussion of

the content of curriculum and
what it takes to develop creative content with students, not for
them, in order to purposefully
work to make the world a better place. November calls this
“leaving a legacy.”
Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from November, A. [TED Talks].
(2011, March 5). TEDXNYED [Video
file].
I’m going to tell a bunch of stories and I at first don’t expect
that they’re going
to have any connection at all and then in the end, I’m going to
try to bring them
together. First story is in 1975 and I am a teacher of biology
and chemistry in
Roxbury High School in Boston and I find out that the local
subway line, which
is elevated at the time, is going to be put underground, and the
local, huge,
subway terminal bus station, called Dudley Station, is
auctioning off various
storefronts to the community because over the next 10 years
they’re going
to dismantle it. No more investment. So I am probably one of
the only teach-
ers in the country who’s ever bid, and won, for a dollar—I got a
barbershop.
And the barbershop, I needed the barbershop because a couple
of months
before that, my roommate at medical school had one of my
students arrive
in an ambulance, who had never really had any medical care in
his life. And
he tells me this, and I’m teaching biology, and he says, “You

know, you really
ought to teach your kids some practical stuff, because too many
of kids in your
neighborhood—there where you are teaching—don’t have good
medical care,
but it’s free. And if they only knew about it, they could, they
could have better
wellness. So, see what you can do.” So the barbershop was this
great loca-
tion in the center of the community and I sent kids out to all the
hospitals, all
the health centers, they gathered information left and right, and
we turned
the barbershop into a health-information neighborhood center.
After school,
kids would sign up, march down, I marched with them three
blocks from the
school, and we had a blast handing out information to probably
thousands of
people from our barbershop. Played music, ran ads, and it was
just an abso-
lute blast. That was in 1975. And then I learned, from that, that
if you give
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 228 5/21/14 3:15 PM
kids involvement in a community along with their schooling, if
it goes hand in
hand, you can make meaning out of what they’re learning in
class, if you have
them involved in the community after class.

Years later I am teaching at Lexington High School, a
phenomenally different
environment than Roxbury High School, and designed a course
called “Com-
munity Problem Solving With Technology,” based after the
barbershop. And
so all my students were asked to go out in the world and find a
real problem
to solve first. Then we’ll figure out what technologies you need
to learn later.
The reverse basically of what we do today. And so one of my
students—gotta
tell you this one story—she had a disabled friend, and in a
wheelchair, and she
found out that there was no yellow pages for handicapped
people in Greater
Boston. So she decided her project was going to be similar to
the barbershop,
organize this massive amount of information. It turned out to be
97 agen-
cies providing service to the disabled, across Greater Boston,
and she built a
database.
And in ‘94 I had some business connections and that went
online in 1984. I
get a call a couple weeks later from a professor at Boston
University Medical
School saying that one of his interns is working at an agency
and my student’s
database shows up linking all the agencies together online. They
had never
seen anything like this and, in fact, could he come and meet
with my high
school student who built the database. And I said, “Well I’m
very busy, it’s the

end of the school year.” And he said, “I don’t want to meet with
you, I want
to meet with your student.” And I, I kind of had to take a retake
there; yeah,
that was a moment. And, you know, how often does a professor
call and ask
to meet with one of your students? So the guy comes in, he
brings a couple
of his masters’ students in public health, one of them had
experienced the
database and they offer her a job. They want to know, if during
the summer,
this is spring time, during the summer, if she would run a
seminar teaching
his students how to design databases for the handicapped. And
they want to
take it across Massachusetts and into upstate New York. They
want to greatly
expand it.
They offer her a pretty good salary. She says she’ll take the job
but not the
salary, no money, and I’m saying, take the money, take the
money. And she’s
saying, no money. And afterwards, I talk to her and I said,
“Why didn’t you take
the money?” That was a lot of—and she needed the money. She
said, “That’s
my project, they’re helping me build on my project, I should be
paying them.”
So she taught me a lot about dignity and integrity of work. That
if a kid is add-
ing value to the world, using technology to make the world a
better place, it’s
absolutely fascinating what they’ll do without a grade, without
money, just

because they own the problem. They identified it, they own it,
they built it;
she felt responsible for it.
So what I want to do now is go further along in the stories. One
of the ques-
tions I think is really important is, Are your students leaving a
legacy? Are
they contributing to the world? Are they creating content,
creative content,
technical content, any kind of content that adds value? Helps
other people
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learn? Helps build a yellow pages for a database for the
handicapped? There’s
just unlimited numbers of real problems that connect all the way
across the
curriculum. There’s no limit but the imagination.
So another story. My daughter, about 2002, 2003, loves Harry
Potter. And she’s
the one who goes to the store at midnight, dressed up in
character—I got to
wait in line—and we buy the book. We come home, she’s
reading the book in
the car. By breakfast, the 750 pages is done and she wants
another one. She
came down and says “Daddy, when do you think J. K. Rowling
is going to do
another one?” I said, “Honey, I have no influence over J. K.

Rowling, I just don’t
know.” So she solves that problem by going on to fanfiction.net,
she discovers
fanfiction.net. Fanfiction.net, if you don’t know, is an early
website where if
you want to write in the style of any author, you go for it. And
you publish it,
and people around the world comment.
So she’s reading one chapter after another in the style of J. K.
Rowling by kids
around the world. Building network, this is before Facebook,
this is before
MySpace, before a whole bunch of stuff. My 13-year-old is busy
doing all this.
And then I said, “Honey, you should write one of these
chapters, you’re a great
writer.” She says, “No, Daddy, I’m a better critic than I am an
original writer.
I’m just criticizing.” That’s what she did; she just criticized
other people. She
loves that. And then one day she comes down and she says,
“Dad, I have a great
idea. I’m going to give the Golden Cauldron Award.” I said,
“What’s the Golden
Cauldron?” She said, “I made that up. I’m gonna put out on
FanFiction that this
award is up for the best absolute writer honoring the style of J.
K. Rowling.”
And I said, “Well who’s on your committee?” She said, “I’m the
Golden Caul-
dron; no one’s on the committee, just me.”
So she gives the award and I look at the finalists, and one of
these is a 13-year-
old girl who has 10 chapters. And I am fascinated by how she

gets better and
better and better, the writing just clearly progresses. So I start
showing this
in workshops (bet there’s some people in the room who’ve seen
me do that).
And one day I am giving a workshop to middle school kids and
their teachers
and you’re not going to believe this: As I’m showing the work
of this chapter,
there’s a buzz in the middle of the auditorium with these middle
school kids
and their teachers. The girl is sitting in the room and I don’t
know it. I’m show-
ing her work to her and the rest of the faculty. So that’s quite an
embarrassing
moment.
And I took advantage of it, and she came up and did a cameo
and explained
to the assembled how she gets an account, how she writes, how
she builds
networks of other writers, and how she promotes, and it was
fantastic. After-
wards, there was a line of kids wanting to talk to her about
getting a free
account in fanfiction.net. The most remarkable part of that
story, though, is
that the teacher, the English teacher’s waiting for me. And the
English teacher
says, “I just want you to know she’s not a great student.” I said,
“What do you
mean?” She said, “Well, she doesn’t get her homework in, she
doesn’t partici-
pate as much as she used to, it’s going down.”
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fanfiction.net
And that was one of those schools where I had to stay
overnight, so I found
that girl later at dinner and I said, “What’s with your
homework? You’re doing
all this work on FanFiction, clearly you can get your homework
done.” And she
said, “Well, I decided that when I wake up I have to make a
decision now. Do I
write for my teachers or do I publish for the world? That’s a
really important
decision and more and more, the answer is, publish for the
world.” And that
was in 2003, again, before lots of kids had that kind of global
capacity. But I
realized, oh my gosh, what if all kids get a voice? What if all
kids figure out
they can do something like FanFiction? Now they are. Now I get
it, that lots of
kids want to have a global voice.
A lot of technology is about improving teaching, which is why
so many teach-
ers show up in staff development without kids. That has to
change. We have to
get a lot more kids into staff development. And teach them how
to build that
same capacity with whatever tools we are giving teachers, kids
to kids.
In the United States, if you ask teachers, “Who works harder,

students or teach-
ers?” lots of teachers will tell you the teachers work harder than
the kids. This
has been the tipping point. I talked to Silvia this morning. The
teacher in this
class now understands that the kids work harder than she does
for the first
time in her career, because she shifted the ownership of learning
to the kids.
And every kid is making a contribution every day. That’s much
better than the
barbershop. You don’t need a barbershop anymore.
Give me more work. This is not like students asking for more
homework; it’s
more work to make a contribution. That’s when I think students
will ask for
a lot more work. And my time is up and I want to just point out
none of this
means that teachers are less important. What it really means is
teachers are
more important than ever, because this is a change in the
culture, a change
in the ecology of learning. This is not about adding technology;
it’s a funda-
mental shift in relationships and roles and the feeling of
empowerment that
students have when they create a legacy. Thanks for listening.
Source: November, A. (2011). TEDxNYED. March 5. Ted Talk
given in 2011 by Alan November. Used with permission of Alan
November.
Summary
Alan November’s TED Talk is a chronological view of what he
has learned from his students over

the past 30 years. He proposes the idea that real work that is
purposeful and creative results
in authentic products that engage students in their learning, as
well as with the technological
tools required to solve problems. When students are engaged in
this way, they work harder and
ultimately leave a global legacy.
November provides examples of problem-based learning as a
means to think about the evolving
role for teachers as the culture of learning changes. He
challenges educators to acknowledge the
inevitable shifts in power, authority, and audience when
students take responsibility for their
own learning.
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Section 5.2 Mapping the Journey: Seeing the Big Picture
Critical Thinking Questions
1. November describes classrooms in which students are
actually asking for more work—not
homework specifically—but more work that “makes a
contribution.” Teachers and school
leaders might argue that the fast and sometimes standardized
pacing that demands learn-
ing basic skills precludes too much of this kind of curricular
innovation. How might you
argue for a curriculum that enables both skill building and
making a contribution through
creative problem solving?

2. One of the central tenets of November’s argument is that it is
essential for schools and
teachers to help students engage with their communities. How
might teachers think about
what constitutes a community in which students can find, name,
and work on real problems
in and through social networks? How might teachers assist
students in exploring those
communities?
3. November asserts that professional development for
educators should include students. What
would such professional development look like? What would be
the goals of teacher/student
professional development? What kinds of tasks and activities
might occur?
5.2 Mapping the Journey: Seeing the Big Picture,
by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss
Introduction
This excerpt is from the first chapter of Suzie Boss and Jane
Krauss’ 2007 book, Reinventing
Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World
Projects in the Digital Age. Suzie Boss
is a founding board member of the Learning Innovation and
Technology Consortium. She is
also a writer and editor at the Northwest Regional Educational
Laboratory, for which she co-
authored the book, Learners, Language, and Technology, which
focuses on technology to sup-
port early literacy
(http://www.netc.org/earlyconnections/pub/llt.pdf ).
A former teacher in Oregon schools, Jane Krauss has long been
an advocate for technology inte-

gration practices in elementary education. As director of
professional development services at
the International Society for Technology in Education, Krauss
has traveled internationally, deliv-
ering professional development workshops and presentations
focused on technology integration.
Boss and Krauss underscore the importance of real-world
learning that engages students with
their communities. They note the importance of such projects
that are “powered by contempo-
rary technologies.” The authors discuss how new generations of
students are already “plugged
in,” providing 21st century educators with new platforms for
engaging with them and their
worlds.
These approaches are not new in K–20 education. Projects and
problem-based outcomes have
been topics of curriculum designers and researchers for more
than 100 years, beginning with
the work of William H. Kilpatrick and the Project Method in
1918. These authors suggest that
educators need to look more closely at how and when such
projects occur, and how they are or
are not integrated into the lived curriculum in classrooms.
Projects are often relegated to culmi-
nating activities or extra credit artistic products that are add-ons
rather than integral elements
in teaching and learning. Boss and Krauss recommend
otherwise.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 232 5/21/14 3:15 PM
http://www.netc.org/earlyconnections/pub/llt.pdf

Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from Boss, S., & Krauss, J. (2007).
Mapping the journey: Seeing the
big picture. In Reinventing project-based learning: Your field
guide to real-world projects in
the digital age (pp. 11–24). Washington, DC: International
Society for Technology in Education.
Project-based learning—powered by contemporary
technologies—is a strat-
egy certain to turn traditional classrooms upside down. When
students learn
by engaging in real-world projects, nearly every aspect of their
experience
changes. The teacher’s role shifts. He or she is no longer the
content expert,
doling out information in bite-sized pieces. Student behavior
also changes.
Instead of following the teacher’s lead, learners pursue their
own questions
to create their own meaning. Even the boundaries of the
classroom change.
Teachers still design the project as the framework for learning,
but students
may wind up using technology to access and analyze
information from all cor-
ners of the globe. Connections among learners and experts can
happen in real
time. That means new kinds of learning communities can come
together to
discuss, debate, and exchange ideas.
The phrase “21st-century learning” slipped into use long before

the calendar
rolled over to 2000. A robust debate about the needs of digital-
age learners
and the workforce needs of the new century continues to engage
a global
audience. The business world demands employees who know
how to work
as a team, access and analyze information, and think creatively
to solve prob-
lems. In the academic world and the blogosphere, educators
routinely call for
new strategies to better connect with the plugged-in generation
known as the
millennials. But with the new century now well underway, the
shift in teach-
ing necessary to realize this vision is far from complete.
You may already be familiar with traditional project-based
learning, which
has been shown to be effective in increasing student motivation
and improv-
ing students’ problem-solving and higher-order thinking skills
(Stites, 1998).
In project-based learning, students investigate open-ended
questions and
apply their knowledge to produce authentic products. Projects
typically allow
for student choice, setting the stage for active learning and
teamwork.
Reinventing the project approach doesn’t mean discarding this
venerable
model. Rather, we advocate building on what we already know
is good about
project-based learning. By maximizing the use of digital tools
to reach essen-

tial learning goals, teachers can overcome the boundaries and
limitations of
the traditional classroom. Some tools open new windows onto
student think-
ing, setting the stage for more productive classroom
conversations. Others
facilitate the process of drafting and refining, removing
obstacles to improve-
ment. Still others allow for instant global connections,
redefining the meaning
of a learning community. When teachers thoughtfully integrate
these tools,
the result is like a “turbo boost” that can take project-based
learning into a
new orbit.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 233 5/21/14 3:15 PM
What are the hallmarks of this reinvigorated approach to
projects?
• Projects form the centerpiece of the curriculum—they are not
an
add-on or extra at the end of a “real” unit.
• Students engage in real-world activities and practice the
strategies of
authentic disciplines.
• Students work collaboratively to solve problems that matter to
them.
• Technology is integrated as a tool for discovery,

collaboration, and
communication, taking learners places they couldn’t otherwise
go
and helping teachers achieve essential learning goals in new
ways.
• Increasingly, teachers collaborate to design and implement
projects
that cross geographic boundaries or even jump time zones.
Source: Boss, S. & Krauss, J. (2007). Mapping the journey:
Seeing the big picture. In Reinventing project based learning:
Your field
guide to real-world projects in the digital age. Washington, DC:
ISTE.
Summary
Boss and Krauss present familiar elements of project-based
learning while introducing new ele-
ments engendered by the integration of technology into the
process. They emphasize the impor-
tance of relevance and collaboration among teachers as well as
students. They claim that it is
time for a more contemporary, cutting-edge perspective on
project-based learning that extends
the classroom parameters, noting the potential for project-based
learning to involve students,
teachers, and other experts from around the world.
The excerpt mentions technological tools that extend students’
thinking and can prepare stu-
dents to engage in new types of conversations in classrooms,
both virtually and face to face. Boss
and Krauss propose that technology can remove obstacles that
teachers and students face in

project-based learning initiatives.
1. Researchers have proposed that in order to fully understand
the impact of collaborative
problem solving such as Boss and Krauss suggest, we need to
assess participation, teacher
support, and information search capability. In order to be
successful in a project-based
or problem-based learning curriculum, students need all three of
these components. How
would you collect evidence of these three characteristics in a
project-based, technology-rich
learning environment? How would you use the results of such
evidence to improve the expe-
rience for and with students?
2. One of the key concepts for this chapter is the increasing
need for authentic audiences in
the 21st century curriculum. Imagine that you are presenting to
a school board or board of
trustees about problem-solving approaches in a technologically
supported learning class-
room. How would you describe who such authentic audiences
might be for students’ work?
3. What portion of curriculum that you currently teach or have
taught is problem- or project-
based, using technological tools in the way that Boss and
Krauss describe? What would be
required to increase the time and attention to such approaches in
your curriculum?
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 234 5/21/14 3:15 PM

Section 5.3 Power Up Their Imaginations
5.3 Power Up Their Imaginations, by Jane McGonigal
Introduction
Jane McGonigal is a world-renowned game developer for
organizations such as the World Bank,
the New York Public Library, the American Heart Association,
and the International Olympics
Committee. As a future forecaster, she advises companies such
as Microsoft, Disney, Activision,
and Wells Fargo.
In this excerpt, she describes the Quest to Learn charter school
in Chicago, Illinois, which opened
its doors in 2009 after two years of curriculum design and
strategic planning, directed by a joint
team of educators and professional game developers, and made
possible by funding from the
MacArthur Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. At this school, for half of the
school day, students receive points instead of letter grades and
conduct missions, reaching levels
of success and exchanging expertise with other players. In
short, part of the school’s curriculum
is based on game theory. McGonigal contends that schools in
the 21st century would benefit
from paying attention to the video games that so many young
people and children play.
This article builds on the November and Boss and Krauss pieces
in that it supports the notion of
problem-based learning in which students pace themselves and
seek out the tools and skills that

they need in order to achieve their own levels of success. The
focus for McGonigal remains on
real-world situations and issues, but she addresses them
specifically through the lens of gaming.
Game theory is beginning to influence curriculum in the 21st
century; just how much teachers
and school leaders are able to learn and integrate into teaching
and learning remains to be seen.
Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from McGonigal, J. (2011). Power
up their imaginations. Times Edu-
cational Supplement, (4966), 4.
Quest to Learn is a public charter school in New York City for
students in
Grades 6–12 (equivalent to years 7–13). It’s the first game-
based school in the
world—but its founders hope it will serve as a model for
schools worldwide.
* * *
It’s run by principal Aaron B. Schwartz, a graduate of Yale
University and a
10-year veteran teacher and administrator in the New York City
Department
of Education. Meanwhile, the development of the school’s
curriculum and
schedule has been led by Katie Salen, a 10-year veteran of the
game industry
and a leading researcher of how kids learn by playing games.
In many ways, the college-preparatory curriculum is like any
other school’s—
the students learn math, science, geography, English, history,

foreign lan-
guages, computers and arts in different blocks throughout the
day. But it’s
how they learn that’s different: students are engaged in gameful
activities
from the moment they wake up in the morning to the moment
they finish
up their final homework assignment at night. The schedule of a
sixth-grader
named Rai can help us better understand a day in the life of a
Quest student.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 235 5/21/14 3:15 PM
7.15 a.m. Rai is “questing” before she even gets to school.
She’s working on a
secret mission, a math assignment that she discovered hidden in
one of the
books in the school library yesterday. She exchanges text
messages with her
friends, Joe and Celia, as soon as she gets up, in order to make
plans to meet at
school early. Their goal: break the mathematical code before
any of the other
students discover it.
This isn’t a mandatory assignment—it’s a secret assignment, an
opt-in learn-
ing quest. Not only do they not have to complete it, they
actually have to earn
the right to complete it, by discovering its secret location.
Having a secret mis-

sion means you’re not learning and practicing fractions because
you have to
do it. You’re working toward a self-chosen goal, and an
exciting one at that:
decoding a secret message before anyone else. Obviously, not
all schoolwork
can be special, secret missions. But when every book could
contain a secret
code, every room a clue, every handout a puzzle, who wouldn’t
show up to
school more likely to fully participate, in the hopes of being the
first to find
the secret challenges?
9.00 a.m. In English class, Rai isn’t trying to earn a good grade
today. Instead,
she’s trying to level up. She’s working her way through a
storytelling unit and
she already has five points. That makes her just seven points
shy of a “mas-
ter” storyteller status. She’s hoping to add another point to her
total today by
completing a creative writing mission. She might not be the first
student in
her class to become a storytelling master, but she doesn’t have
to worry about
missing her opportunity. As long as she’s willing to tackle more
quests, she
can work her way up to the top level and earn her equivalent of
an A grade.
Levelling up is a much more egalitarian model of success than a
traditional
letter-grading system based on the bell curve. Everyone can
level up, as long
as they keep working hard. Levelling up can replace or

complement tradi-
tional letter grades that students have just one shot at earning.
And if you
fail a quest, there is no permanent damage done to your report
card. You just
have to try more quests to earn enough points to get the score
you want. This
system of “grading” replaces negative stress with positive
stress, helping stu-
dents focus more on learning and less on performing.
11.45 a.m. Rai logs on to a school computer to update her
profile in the “exper-
tise exchange,” where all the students advertise their learning
superpowers.
She’s going to declare herself a master at mapmaking. She
didn’t even realize
mapmaking could count as an area of expertise. She does it for
fun, outside of
school, making maps of her favorite 3D virtual worlds to help
other players
navigate them better.
Her geography teacher, Mr. Smiley, saw one of her maps and
told her that
eighth-graders were just about to start a group quest to locate
“hidden histo-
ries” of Africa: they would look for clues about the past in
everyday objects like
trade beads, tapestries and pots. They would need a good digital
mapmaker
to help them plot the stories about the objects according to
where they were
found, and to design a map that would be fun for other students
to explore.

bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 236 5/21/14 3:15 PM
The expertise exchange works just like video-game social-
network profiles
that advertise what games you’re good at and like to play, as
well as the online
matchmaking systems that help players find new teammates.
These systems
are designed to encourage and facilitate collaboration. By
identifying your
strengths and interests publicly, you increase the chances that
you will be
called on to do work that you’re good at. In the classroom, this
means students
are more likely to find ways to contribute successfully to team
projects. And
the chance to do something you’re good at as part of a larger
project helps
students build real esteem among their peers—not empty self-
esteem based
on nothing other than wanting to feel good about yourself, but
actual respect
and high regard based on contributions you have made.
2.15 p.m. On Fridays, the school always has a guest speaker, or
“secret ally.”
Today, the secret ally is a musician named Jason, who uses
computer pro-
grams to make music. After giving a live demonstration with his
laptop, he
announces that he’ll be back in a few weeks to help the students
as a coach on

their upcoming “boss level.”
For the boss level, students will form teams and compose their
own music.
Every team will have a different part to play—and rumor has it
that several
mathematical specialists will be needed to work on the
computer code. Rai
really wants to qualify for one of those spots, so she plans to
spend extra time
over the next two weeks working harder on her math
assignments.
As the Quest website explains, boss levels are “two-week
‘intensive’ (units)
where students apply knowledge and skills to date to propose
solutions to
complex problems.”
“Boss level” is a term taken directly from video games. In a
boss level, you
face a boss monster, or some equivalent thereof—a monster so
intimidating
it requires you to draw on everything you have learned and
mastered in the
game so far. It’s the equivalent of a mid-term or final exam.
Boss levels are
notoriously hard but immensely satisfying to beat. Quest
schedules boss lev-
els at various points in the school year, in order to fire students
up about put-
ting their lessons into action. Students get to tackle an epic
challenge—and
there’s no shame in failing. It’s a boss level, and so, just like
any good game, it’s
meant to whet your appetite to try harder and practice more.

Like collaborative quests, the boss levels are tackled in teams,
and each stu-
dent must qualify to play a particular role—”mathematical
specialist,” for
example. Just as in a big World of Warcraft raid, each
participant is expected
to play to his or her strengths. This is one of Quest’s key
strategies for giving
students better hopes of success. Beyond the basic core
curriculum, students
spend most of their time getting better at subjects and
activities—ones they
have a natural talent for or already know how to do well. This
strategy means
every student is set up to truly excel at something, and to focus
attention on
the areas in which he or she is most likely to one day become
extraordinary.
6.00 p.m. Rai is at home, interacting with a virtual character
named Betty. Rai’s
goal is to teach Betty how to divide mixed numbers. Betty is
what Quest calls
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 237 5/21/14 3:15 PM
a “teachable agent”—”an assessment tool where kids teach a
digital character
how to solve a particular problem.” In other words, Betty is a
software pro-
gram designed to know less than Rai. And it’s Rai’s job to

“teach” the program
by demonstrating solutions and working patiently with Betty
until she gets it.
At Quest, these teachable agents replace quizzes, easing the
anxiety associ-
ated with having to perform under pressure. With a teachable
agent, you’re
not being tested to see if you have really learnt something.
Instead, you’re
mentoring someone because you really have learned something
and this is
your chance to show it. There’s a powerful element of naches—
vicarious
pride—involved here: the more a student learns, the more he or
she can pass
it on. This is a core dynamic of how learning works in good
video games and,
at Quest, it’s perfectly translated into a scalable assessment
system.
Secret missions, boss levels, expertise exchanges, special
agents, points, and
levels instead of letter grades—there’s no doubt that Quest to
Learn is a differ-
ent kind of learning environment, about as radically different a
mission as any
charter school has set out in recent memory. It’s an
unprecedented infusion
of gamefulness into the state school system. And the result is a
learning envi-
ronment where students get to share secret knowledge, turn
their intellectual
strengths into superpowers, tackle epic challenges and fail
without fear.

Source: McGonigal, J. (2011). Power up their imaginations.
Times Educational Supplement, 4966 (Nov. 4, 2011): 4. © 2011
Jane
McGonigal. Reproduced by the kind permission of the author
and TES.
Summary
McGonigal describes a typical day in the life of a student named
Rai at the Quest to Learn school
in Chicago. As she does so, she introduces the key practices in
game-based learning: (a) secret
missions with student-driven goals; (b) leveling up, a self-
assessment tool for students to gauge
their progress; (c) expertise exchange through which students
“advertise their superpowers,”
thereby building capacity for all to learn from each other; and
(d) boss levels in which students
“get to tackle an epic challenge—and there’s no shame in
failing. It’s a boss level, and so, just
like any good game, it’s meant to whet your appetite to try
harder and practice more.” For Rai,
learning continues beyond the school day as she becomes the
teacher for her virtual student who
must also solve a problem.
All of these practices reflect a philosophy for curriculum and
instruction in which students par-
ticipate fully and collaboratively in traditional curriculum
design components—quite simply,
why (goals) what (content), how (instruction), and how well
(assessment). But in this school,
these components are structured in the context of games. This
shift necessitates changes in lan-
guage as well as substance. Futurist Jane McGonigal writes that
this approach is unprecedented
in a public school system.

1. McGonigal is a futurist who looks forward in order to
promote educative practices that
can be implemented in the present. On her website, she
recommends Superstruct, a 10-year
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 238 5/21/14 3:15 PM
Section 5.4 Digital Citizenship for Educational Change
forecast tool to help leaders, designers and innovators stay
ahead of current trends and
prepare for the future. How can educators prepare themselves as
instructors, mentors, and
researchers for the next decade? How might schools and
universities embed futurist dia-
logue, led by thinkers such as McGonigal, into their strategic
planning?
2. Charter schools are designed to be sites in which innovative
educators can test ideas to
reach students. Sometimes those ideas work well in the charter
school context but do not
seem to adapt well to scaling up to a large number of schools or
an entire school district.
Why might that be the case with a school based on a game
theory such as Quest to Learn?
Further, what resources (people, time, space, materials) would
be necessary to scale up a
game-oriented approach to 21st century curriculum?
3. One theme in McGonigal’s text is the necessity and value of

failing. Schools have tradition-
ally had specific approaches and interventions to address failure
that often involve remedia-
tion, retention, suspension, and dismissal. What does gaming
teach the educational com-
munity about the nature, impact, and positive outcomes related
to failure that is intentional
and part of a learning environment culture?
4. Imaginative approaches to curriculum and instruction, such
as the approach at Quest to
Learn charter school require new skills, language, and
dispositions for educators, particu-
larly those who have not been raised in a video game household.
If you were a team leader or
district curriculum coordinator, how would you approach
professional development to seek
and support teachers as they take risks and learn to teach using
gaming approaches?
5.4 Digital Citizenship for Educational Change,
by Mike Ribble
Introduction
In this article, Mike Ribble explicitly relates the expertise and
commitment to digital technology
with educational change. He names the specific components of
digital citizenship that we must
focus on in order to move toward a more broadly defined
educational change. Ribble reminds
readers that students are increasingly savvy with digital tools,
including smart phone, tablets,
and social networking applications. He asserts that teachers and
school leaders must catch up
with their own students.

Ribble’s argument in the ongoing discussion of the curriculum
for the 21st century is that the
elements of digital citizenship, including digital access,
commerce, communication, literacy, eti-
quette, law, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness, and
security are all skills that must
be addressed by adults both in and outside the traditional
classroom.
Ribble’s article articulates why digital citizenship is important
for this century. He responds to
objections by describing students who are excessively immersed
in media and Internet consump-
tion as sometimes failing in school because digital citizenship
has not been explicitly addressed
as part of the curriculum. He claims that many school leaders
are unwilling to construct curricu-
lum related to digital citizenship because of their own lack of
familiarity with these elements,
and thus business continues as usual.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 239 5/21/14 3:15 PM
A familiar response to the call for digital citizenship is that
technology is changing so fast that
curriculum design cannot keep pace. Ribble maintains that a
careful integration of digital citi-
zenship within and across disciplines can meet the needs of
students and teachers as a focus of
ongoing, dynamic study in which everyone learns.
Finally, Ribble emphasizes that, “Digital citizenship is not a

topic separate from the rest of the
curriculum, but spans across all areas of education.” If one of
the concepts driving 21st century
curriculum is that content is both integrative as well as
discipline-specific, Ribble’s comments
deserve thoughtful consideration for schooling.
Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from Ribble, M. (2012). Digital
citizenship for educational change.
Kappa Delta Pi, 48: 148–151.
Students are coming to school with more and more exposure to
digital tools,
such as smartphones, tablets, and social networking apps
(Rideout, Foehr, and
Roberts 2010). Though teachers are trying to “catch up” with
their students,
many were not provided instruction in these skills during their
preservice
training, and technology is only one among many topics in
competition for
district in-service time. Schools have an increasing need to
provide not only
the tools, but also the training for technology in the classroom.
As technology
changes the foundation of education, new issues emerge. Among
these is the
appropriate and responsible use of technology in the educational
field-digital
citizenship.
In 2008, the International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE) updated
its National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for
teachers. In that

revision, ISTE (2008, 2) identified “Promote and Model Digital
Citizenship
and Responsibility” among five technology standards. For many
educators,
digital citizenship is not a familiar term. Most are not trained on
this topic and
are unprepared to teach it to their students. Yet, they should be.
So why are educators encouraged to understand and teach
digital citizenship?
First, as more schools move to 1:1 initiatives, it has become
clear that educa-
tors and-in extension? their students must understand digital
citizenship and
the issues it entails (Kiker 2011). In addition, the changes that
are occurring
at the governmental level are now beginning to require that
schools address
the issues of digital citizenship or risk loss of funding. On June
4, 2010, the
Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG)
released its report
titled Youth Safety on a Living Internet (2010). That group
submitted its rec-
ommendations to the National Telecommunications and
Information Admin-
istration (NTIA), which in turn identified the promotion of
digital citizenship
in P–12 education as a national priority. The OSTWG (2010,
20) report advo-
cated that educators “in the process of teaching regular subjects,
teach the
constructive, mindful use of social media enabled by digital
citizenship and
new-media-literacy training.”

bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 240 5/21/14 3:15 PM
Moreover, with new recommendations being submitted to
Congress, edu-
cators need to help their students become more technologically
literate. As
organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills
(P21) begin to
look at addressing skills for 21st century citizenship, schools
and districts will
need to focus on these needs (P21 2012). Teachers, therefore,
must acquire
and learn to teach the skills to be applied in their classrooms.
New Technology Skills
What basic proficiencies in digital citizenship do teachers need?
Because
the scope of digital citizenship is wide-ranging, educators may
be hesitant to
attempt teaching digital-age skills in their classrooms. This
breadth of knowl-
edge, as well as the sensitivity of the subject matter, concerns
teachers, who
may view digital citizenship as a technology problem rather
than a societal
issue that affects everyone. Indeed, the subject matter is
sensitive, with con-
cerns ranging from cell phone etiquette to cyberbullying and
sexting. Further,
these topics often become sensationalized in the popular press
and confused

with other technological topics affecting students, such as
identity protection,
online theft, and information privacy—all of which are concerns
for users of
digital technology.
What educators need to recognize are the concerns that are
affecting their
school and students, whether these are technology related or
not. Too often
schools hide behind their Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) in an
attempt to
address technology problems of a few students without
identifying the under-
lying needs. Teachers are using these tools, but also must
understand how
students are affected by these technologies over time. Districts
must begin a
process of educating students as OSTWG has recommended. A
process needs
to be in place so that all teachers can learn and understand the
skills and con-
cepts involved in digital citizenship.
Though the issues are broad, various groups and organizations
have attempted
to give the topic of digital citizenship clearer definition. The
prior NETS for
teachers defined this area as “social, ethical, legal, and human
issues sur-
rounding the use of technology” (ISTE 2000, 9). In its update,
ISTE (2008, 2)
recognized the importance of addressing this issue on an even
larger scale.
In the background of this goal, NETS states, “Teachers
understand local and

global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital
culture and
exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional
practices.” In another
far-reaching definition, Collier (2009) expressed digital
citizenship as “critical
thinking and ethical choices about the content and impact on
oneself, oth-
ers, and one’s community of what one sees, says, and produces
with media,
devices, and technologies.”
One of the most encompassing and succinct definitions comes
from Digital
Citizenship in Schools, in which Ribble and Bailey (2007, 10)
described digital
citizenship as the “norms of appropriate, responsible behavior
with regard
to technology use.” While this definition is broad, it covers
many aspects of
technology and the people that use it. To help focus the
conversation, this
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 241 5/21/14 3:15 PM
definition also includes a framework of nine elements that help
to define and
organize the topics being addressed with regard to technology.
The nine ele-
ments of digital citizenship (Ribble and Bailey 2007) are
outlined here.

Digital Access: full electronic participation in society—
allowing all technol-
ogy users to participate fully in a digital society if they choose.
Educators can
help students understand this topic by identifying what
technology tools are
available at school as well as in the student’s home. Then
discuss how these
tools can help students in the classroom.
Digital Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods—
providing the
knowledge and protection to buy and sell in a digital world.
Help students
identify safe websites when providing sensitive information,
such as credit
card numbers, by looking for https: or a lock on the URL bar or
in the bottom
corner of a webpage. Have students talk with their parents to
identify safe
sites if they purchase items online.
Digital Communication: electronic exchange of information—
understanding
the options of the digital communication methods and when
they are appro-
priate. Help students understand when different tools might be
most effec-
tive, such as using e-mail for more formal communication and
tweeting for
casual conversations with friends.
Digital Literacy: process of teaching and learning about
technology and the
use of technology—learning about and teaching others how to
use digital tech-

nologies appropriately. Provide explanations on how to use the
technology
tools in the classroom. Do not assume that all students are
familiar with them
or know how to use them appropriately. Also, take advantage of
any opportu-
nity for a “flipped classroom” moment, where students may be
able to support
the teacher as well as other students in the classroom.
Digital Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or
procedure—being con-
siderate of others when using digital technologies. Explain that
technology
use is often personal, but its use can affect others (e.g., talking
loudly on a cell
phone around others). Allow students to provide experiences
they have had
with technology and discuss how situations might have been
handled better.
Digital Law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds—
having an aware-
ness of laws (rules, policies) that govern the use of digital
technologies. Dis-
cuss with students the technology rules that are in the school as
well as in
their homes. Have them explain why these rules are necessary.
Digital Rights and Responsibilities: those requirements and
freedoms
extended to everyone in a digital world—protecting the digital
rights of others
while defending individual rights. Help students to see that
technology pro-
vides many privileges; and to keep those privileges, students

need to facilitate
their own and others’ use of technology in an appropriate
manner.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 242 5/21/14 3:15 PM
Digital Health and Wellness: physical and psychological well-
being in a digi-
tal technology world—understanding the risks (both physically
and psycho-
logically) that may accompany the use of digital technologies.
Identify with
students how much technology may be too much (e.g., sitting
for long periods
of time, eye strain) and how they can balance its use with other
activities.
Digital Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to
guarantee
safety—protecting personal information while taking
precautions to protect
others’ data as well. Provide examples of not sharing and
protecting informa-
tion online; define how much information may be too much.
These nine elements provide a scaffold for addressing the needs
that are aris-
ing with respect to technology in schools. These elements also
identify skill
areas that can be addressed in the classroom. By breaking this
topic into these
nine areas, educators can begin to discuss the information in an

organized
way. Also, teachers can talk about digital communication on
topics such as
when and where to send a text message and the perception of
others when
texting is being used.
Too often educators do not want to begin discussing these
issues because
they themselves are not well-informed of the recent
developments and events
related to technology. But parsing the discussion into
manageable topics can
allow one idea to build on another over time. While identifying
these elements
is important, it is not enough. Educators need to provide
resources to stu-
dents (and sometimes to parents) that build understanding of
what would be
considered appropriate to a digital citizen. Using examples from
the nine ele-
ments of digital citizenship helps define the types of
inappropriate activities
that might occur.
Skills for the Future
Why is the topic of digital citizenship important to students and
their future?
This is the world that these students are growing up in, and
schools need to
be a part of this process. In a Kaiser Family Foundation study
(Rideout et al.,
2010) of students that were heavy users of media (more than 16
hours a day),
nearly half earned only fair to poor grades. Students need to

understand the
long-term impact of excessive media consumption.
Perhaps not all of these topics dealing with appropriate
technology use will fit
within the curriculum, but educators need to be aware that their
students are
coming to school with these questions and concerns. There may
be situations
where students use their technology inappropriately outside of
school, which
become issues for the teacher and school community. Now that
Internet and
social networking applications can be used on a cell phone,
these events can
occur at any time, both in school and out. While the
technologies may change,
the concepts of using these tools appropriately will remain the
same. This is
why teaching these skills to students (even as young as
prekindergarten) may
become a priority for schools.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 243 5/21/14 3:15 PM
Technology Skills Development
Teachers must learn more about digital citizenship. There are a
growing num-
ber of resources that are being made available on this topic. The
book Digital
Citizenship in Schools (Ribble and Bailey 2007) and its

companion book for
parents, Raising a Digital Child (Ribble, 2009), cover the
concepts of the nine
elements in much more detail. The website
http://www.digitalcitizenship
.org also has some basic information.
Common Sense Media has updated its website to include topics
and informa-
tion related to digital citizenship. This site provides information
and activities
for educators and students to better understand the topics
surrounding tech-
nology. Another site launched more recently by the U.S.
government is http://
www.admongo.gov. That website helps students discern the
information of
digital commerce and decide what information is true and what
is not. Other
resources provide educators with a wealth of information. Most
of the content
on these pages is free and available to educators.
Once the information about digital citizenship has been
identified, the con-
cepts and ideas can be integrated into the classroom and
discussed in an orga-
nized fashion. By understanding the elements of digital
citizenship, teachers
will be able to address the issues that students are having with
technology
both in the classroom and at home. Connecting with other
teachers to discuss
the problems they may be having in the classroom can help to
find strate-
gies that work in other schools or districts. Digital citizenship is

not a topic
separate from the rest of the curriculum, but spans across all
areas of educa-
tion. Today, more than any time in history, students need to
become global
citizens, and the use of technology provides a conduit for those
connections.
The themes within digital citizenship help educators to explain
these ideas to
students.
Closing Thoughts
Now is the time to begin making changes in the classroom.
Students already
are coming to school with this knowledge, and now teachers
need to catch
up. Educators need to look to the tools that are available and
work with their
technology personnel to set a path for where and what they want
to do to
ensure digital citizenship in their schools. It is true that
technology continues
to change, but schools and districts need to begin setting a
direction for how
to use the tools of technology and provide the best education for
students.
The technology is only part of the equation; it needs to be
coupled with solid,
tested educational curriculum.
Ideally, the focus on areas such as digital citizenship in schools
will begin the
process of creating an organized plan for how to integrate these
ideas into les-
sons. As the impact of technology continues to grow, both

inside schools and
out, the skills needed to become effective digital citizens will
be ever increas-
ing. Educators can no longer wait for the next digital tool or
federal mandate
to be released. Digital citizenship education is needed today.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 244 5/21/14 3:15 PM
http://www.digitalcitizenship.org
http://www.digitalcitizenship.org
http://www.admongo.gov
http://www.admongo.gov
References
Collier, A. (2009). A definition of digital literacy & citizenship.
NetFamily News, September 15.
Available at: http://www.netfamilynews.org/2009/09/definition-
of-digital
-literacy.html
Common Sense Media. (2010). Digital citizenship. San
Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media.
Available at:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum/k-5
International Society for Technology in Education. (2000).
National education standards.
Washington, DC: ISTE. Available at:
www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008).

National education standards.
Washington, DC: ISTE. Available at:
Kiker, R. 2011. 5 strategies for 1 to 1 classroom management. 1
to 1 Schools website, March 18
post. Available at: http://1to1schools.net/2011/03/5-strategies-
for-1-to-1-class
room-management/
Online Safety and Technology Working Group. 2010. Youth
safety on a living Internet. Wash-
ington, DC. OSTWG. Available at:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/reports/2010/
OSTWG_Final_Report_060410.pdf
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 2012. Website home page.
Washington, DC: P21. Available
at: www.p21.org
Ribble, M. 2009. Raising a digital child. Eugene, OR:
HomePage Books/International Society
for Technology in Education.
Ribble, M., and G. Bailey. 2007. Digital citizenship in schools.
Eugene, OR: International Society
for Technology in Education.
Rideout, V., U. G. Foehr, and D. F. Roberts. 2010. Generation
M2: Media in the fives of 8- to
18-year-olds. Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation.
Source: Ribble, M. (2012). Digital citizenship for educational
changes. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 48(4), 148–151. Routledge
Informa Ltd.

Summary
Ribble’s article defines digital citizenship in several ways,
using the language from ISTE, NETS,
and his own book, Digital Citizenship in Schools. He then
names nine general elements that
constitute digital citizenship for most in these domains.
Ribble notes that Congress continues to examine skills needed
more generally for students in
the 21st century, and technology skills remain central to that
dialogue. Because students need
digital citizenship skills, teachers obviously do too. The author
writes that the subject is over-
whelming to many educators; thus there is a need to break the
topic down into essential ele-
ments, which he briefly reviews in this excerpt. The nine
elements are relevant at the school,
district, and classroom level, suggesting the need for an
organized plan to address them at both
the macro- and microlevel.
The attention to digital citizenship underscores the
responsibility of educators to allow access
for all in the 21st century world. Ribble concludes by noting
that educators cannot or perhaps
should not wait for a mandate; these skills need to be integrated
now.
1. What are the challenges for integrating the elements of
digital citizenship in your particu-
lar state or local area?
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 245 5/21/14 3:15 PM

http://www.netfamilynews.org/2009/09/definition-of-digital-
literacy.html
http://www.netfamilynews.org/2009/09/definition-of-digital-
literacy.html
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum/k-5
www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers. aspx
http://1to1schools.net/2011/03/5-strategies-for-1-to-1-
classroom-management/
http://1to1schools.net/2011/03/5-strategies-for-1-to-1-
classroom-management/
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/reports/2010/OSTWG_Final_Re
port_060410.pdf
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/reports/2010/OSTWG_Final_Re
port_060410.pdf
www.p21.org
Section 5.5 Teacherpreneur Spotlight: Adam Bellow
2. Design a 5-minute proposal for a school board or board of
trustees outlining an action plan
for a professional learning community process devoted to the
elements of digital citizenship.
What would be the incentives for membership? What would the
benefits be for the board to
approve such an action plan? How would the board know that
the plan was successful?
3. How could students play an active role in designing
integrative curriculum for the 21st
century in which the digital citizenship elements were evident?
4. Develop, with colleagues, a best practice bullet list that
demonstrates how digital citizenship

contributes to a 21st-century curriculum in a particular content
area.
5.5 Teacherpreneur Spotlight: Adam Bellow, by Jessie Arora
Introduction
Adam Bellow is a former teacher and the founder of eduClipper,
a website that has become a
source of material and ideas for innovative teachers around the
world. He designed the site
originally as a place where teachers could share their innovative
ideas and cull ideas from oth-
ers teaching in the online environment. Such sites are necessary
as teachers develop pedago-
gies that are particularly tailored to digital tools. Many
technology sites offer links, tools, apps,
and lessons for teachers, but few provide the kind of “visual
curation” or the visual representa-
tion and dissemination of work that eduClipper provides.
Bellow deems this public exhibition of
inherently visual work essential to the most imaginative and
innovative teaching and learning.
He also argues that it is not enough to make and produce; it is
also important to share imme-
diately and as widely as possible. Teachers who are also
entrepreneurs embrace innovation
and consider themselves innovators in their field. They learn
more about their teaching as they
showcase tools and approaches to using those tools with
students. Learning how to actually doc-
ument and visually represent teaching and learning is also a
crucial aspect of evidence-based
practice, which is more and more demanding in contemporary
schools. Supporting these sites
in which teachers share, view, critique, and contribute visual

representations of their work is
an innovative and essential part of professional development in
the digital environment. This is
part of Bellow’s vision for the dynamic curriculum in the 21st
century.
Bellow affirms the importance of community and of envisioning
learning that is not bound by
the traditional discipline of education, but rather taps expertise
that can help educators focus on
a problem and address it, not just for teachers and students in
classrooms, but for a larger net-
work of participants. He reminds potential teacherpreneurs that
it is crucial to embrace failure,
see mistakes, and then move ahead quickly. Bellow exemplifies
an emerging role for teacher–
entrepreneurs who break new ground without waiting for new
standards, new mandates, or
new policies.
The term teacherpreneur provides a compelling opportunity for
discussion about the rela-
tionship between the roles of teacher and entrepreneur, not just
for Bellow, but for other 21st-
century educators.
The following interview with Bellow provides some
biographical information and culminates in
his current role as speaker, advocate, and educational
technologist.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 246 5/21/14 3:15 PM

Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from Arora, J. (2013, April 9).
Teacherpreneur spotlight: Adam Bel-
low, former teacher, eduClipper founder [Blog post]. Retrieved
from https://www.edsurge
.com/n/2013-04-09-teacherpreneur-spotlight-adam-bellow-
former-teacher-current-founder
Adam Bellow decided early on in life that he wasn’t going to be
a teacher, even
though both his parents were respected educators. As a self-
proclaimed ‘nerd,’
Adam started programming BASIC when he was 7 years old on
an Apple IIe.
But life plans aren’t set in stone. After completing film school
with a minor
in sociology in 2003 he was an assistant teacher at The
Churchill School (a
school in Manhattan for students with language-based learning
disabilities).
In 2005, Adam took over teaching a class, “Technology in the
Special Ed Class-
room,” to 22 eager graduate students at Hunter College. Over
the next couple
of years, he started to piece together a “terrible catalogue of
sites using iWeb,”
in his words, and in 2007 the first version of eduTeacher was
born. “I thought
of it simply as a place to organize resources for my class,”
Bellow remembers,
“and then when I eventually saw hits coming in from Australia
and China I
realized was meeting a need for a larger community.” His
entrepreneurial

spirit began to blossom.
Evolution of eduClipper
The countless positive testimonials motivated Bellow to
continue eduTecher
as a side project while he worked full time with a series of
teaching jobs,
technology training positions, and as Director of Technology for
the College
Board Schools. In 2009 Bellow launched one of the first edtech
iPhone apps,
eduTecher Backpack, and the momentum continued. “I was
curating the web
for educators and it was cool to see the community organically
grow.”
In 2011 he added a custom social network component and began
spending
more and more time building in new features. “I thought about
what it would
mean to work on this full time. I put out a survey to my edtech
friends to get
their input on what aspects of eduTecher I should rebuild and
possibly even
build a business around.”
The feedback was overwhelming and he learned that what
educators valued
most was the simple, visual curation element that eduTecher had
offered.
Around this time, Pinterest was gaining popularity, which led
him to think
about how he could optimize the “clipboard” experience
specifically for
educators.

Bellow built initial mockups for the rechristened eduClipper in
Keynote and
in early 2012 outsourced the project to developers in India
through Elance. He
convinced his wife to let them put some money into this project,
and worked
night owl hours to test out his idea. “It was rough. . . . On a
typical day, I’d wake
up around 3 a.m. to work on my startup until 5 a.m., before I
left for a full day
of work. Then once I’d tucked the kids in at night I’d jump back
online. I was
sleeping around 3 hours a night and it was not sustainable.”
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 247 5/21/14 3:15 PM
https://www.edsurge.com/n/2013-04-09-teacherpreneur-
spotlight-adam-bellow-former-teacher-current-founder
However, all that hustling paid off by June 2012. He had hoped
that the first
iteration of the site, intended to be a proof of concept, would
attract 200
users. Instead, he got 20,000 a month. He realized he was onto
something and
decided to pursue the project full time.
He was blown away. “The number of accounts created and
positive buzz
around the potential was a clear indication that I had to explore

the possibili-
ties. I made the transition from educator to entrepreneur.
However I had no
knowledge of startups beyond watching The Social Network and
religiously
reading TechCrunch and other related blogs.” Connecting with
the growing
ed tech community was a significant driver in his success and
after a seren-
dipitous encounter with Jeff O’Hara, co-founder of Edmodo,
during a trip to
Chicago, Bellow was more motivated than ever to build his own
product and
company. Bellow is currently gearing up for a major re-launch
of eduClipper,
slated for June 2013, and expand his user base beyond the
25,000 that he cur-
rently supports. At last count, there were 16,000 on the waitlist.
* * *
Lessons Learned
Consistent with the Valley’s spirit to embrace failure, Bellow is
quick to admit
that he made a ton of mistakes along the way. “The trick is to
learn quickly and
keep going.”
In thinking back on what helped eduClipper come to life,
Bellow offers these
few bits of advice:
• Focus on real pain points. “Don’t just set out to build
something
cool. If I set out to build Pinterest for educators that would

suck.
Start with a real problem and understand that pain point that
you’re
trying to resolve.”
• Community is at the core of everything. “Even before there
was
a real product, I focused on talking to people and being
accessible.
Growing my network in the startup space, especially around ed
tech,
has been invaluable especially fumbling through our failures.”
• Education is about people. “Our core values, as you can see
from
the sign on our door, is that teachers and students come first. If
we
started from the perspective of trying to make a ton of money it
would never work.”
Source: Teacherpreneur Spotlight: Adam Bellow, Former
Teacher, eduClipper Founder, by Jessie Arora, for EdSurge.
Copyright
© 2013 Jessie Arora; reprint courtesy of EdSurge (April 9,
2013). Image © eduClipper and used by permission of Adam
Bellow.
Summary
Adam Bellow discusses his own biography, from his classroom
teaching and working with spe-
cial needs children to his prominence as an educational
technologist and founder of the web-
site eduClipper, a resource for teachers around the world. The
article focuses on three pieces of

bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 248 5/21/14 3:15 PM
https://www.edsurge.com/n/2013
Section 5.6 Curriculum Data Mapping: 21st Century Education
advice for teachers, entrepreneurs, or, as this article calls
Bellow, “teacherpreneurs”: (a) find the
problem to be solved, (b) seek out community, and (c) start with
people, not money.
Bellow argues that creative thinking is never static, but rather
responds to and works with
trends, changes, and responses in order to improve, which is
why teachers need websites such as
eduClipper in which they can see what other teachers are doing.
Bellow notes that much of inno-
vation is about trial and error; repeated failures serve to achieve
success. EduClipper is a model
of “visual curation,” specifically for educators, meaning that it
is an explicit demonstration of
the power of sharing practice, innovation, and approaches to
enhance teaching and learning
beyond an individual classroom.
1. What are some other examples of teacherpreneurship that are
accessible through web-
based networks?
2. How could local, global, and online communities foster more
teacherpreneurship, as Bellow

describes it, and support teacher creativity explicitly?
3. How does “visual curation,” that is, the visual representation
and dissemination of work,
shape and reshape curriculum for the 21st century?
4. Some have argued that there are already so many tools,
applications, and approaches avail-
able for teachers on the Internet that it is difficult to ascertain
what is effective and high
quality and what is not. How can individual teachers and
communities of teachers weigh the
effectiveness of what is available on the Internet in order to
determine how it might affect
student learning?
5.6 Curriculum Data Mapping: 21st Century Education,
by Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Introduction
Heidi Hayes Jacobs is a veteran educator and professional
designer. She is most well-known for
her work in curriculum integration and curriculum mapping.
One of the core concepts for curriculum in the 21st century
underscores the importance of both
integration and mapping as processes for revisioning and
rethinking curriculum that is dynamic
and responsive to diverse learners. Jacobs’ website is
www.Curriculum21.com; the title itself
demonstrates her commitment to curriculum for a new age. This
excerpt offers Jacobs’ advice
for leading 21st century technology-integrated educational
practices.

The author recounts specific components necessary in schools if
technology is to play a central
role. She notes the importance of mapping curriculum for a
school with obvious and explicit
technology applications. She emphasizes the need for
flexibility, ongoing professional develop-
ment, and intensive collaboration among teacher colleagues.
For Jacobs, 21st century education extends learning and
teaching beyond school walls and incor-
porates curriculum that is both content-area specific and
integrative. She relates the effective
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 249 5/21/14 3:15 PM
www.Curriculum21.com
use of teaching strategies with skill-based, problem- and
project-based learning approaches.
Finally, she supports common assessments that encourage a
demonstration of skills as well as
higher order thinking. In this Wikispace, Jacobs provides a
succinct and thoughtful, though per-
haps ambitious and daunting, overview of the future for
curriculum and instructional planners.
Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from H. H. Jacobs’ Curriculum Data
Mapping [Website]. Retrieved
from http://curriculummaps.wikispaces.com/Heidi+Hays+Jacobs
• Create time during the school day for teachers to collaborate
around

21st century curriculum and instruction. Partner reluctant teach-
ers with trailblazers. Make technology integration a priority in
the
professional development budget.
• Help teachers make the connections between best-practice
teaching
(including project- and problem-based learning) and the
potential
for web tools and other digital technologies to magnify the
effects of
teaching strategies that emphasis 21st century skills and
“learning
by doing.”
• Develop strategies, based on district and school size, that
ensure
every teacher has engaged in a deep conversation about the need
to
prepare students for life and work in the 21st century.
• Ask each teacher to complete at least one highly engaging
technology-infused project with his or her students during a
speci-
fied time period.
• Sponsor a substantive day-long technology conference for
teachers
at least once a year. Include a blend of thoughtful conversation
about
the rationale behind 21st century learning, presentations by real
teachers of successful 21st century projects, and opportunities
for
hands-on experimentation with at least one collaborative web
tool
(blog, wiki, social network, podcast, etc.). Build a follow-up

plan that
helps ensure teachers will go back to their own classrooms and
try
some of what they’ve learned.
• Kids also must learn to think across disciplines, since that’s
where
most new breakthroughs are made. It’s interdisciplinary
combina-
tions—design and technology, mathematics and art—”that
produce
YouTube and Google,” says Thomas Friedman, the best-selling
author
of The World Is Flat.
• Without mastering the fundamental building blocks of math,
science
or history, complex concepts are impossible.
• Teachers need not fear that they will be made obsolete. They
will,
however, feel increasing pressure to bring their methods—along
with the curriculum—into line with the way the modern world
works. That means putting a greater emphasis on teaching kids
to collaborate and solve problems in small groups and apply
what
they’ve learned in the real world. Besides, research shows that
kids
learn better that way than with the old chalk-and-talk approach.
• Teach 21st century skills discretely in the context of core
subjects
and 21st century interdisciplinary themes.
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 250 5/21/14 3:15 PM

http://curriculummaps.wikispaces.com/Heidi+Hays+Jacobs
• Focus on providing opportunities for applying 21st century
skills
across content areas and for a competency-based approach to
learning.
• Enable innovative learning methods that integrate the use of
sup-
portive technologies, inquiry- and problem-based approaches
and
higher order thinking skills.
• Encourage the integration of community resources beyond
school
walls.
• How do we do this when so many of our colleagues are so
resistant
to change? Is it fair to our students to have one teacher that
allows
natural and authentic use of technology in their classroom and 7
others that do not? How do we implement this change when we
are
so entrenched in our system of standards and standardized
assess-
ments. It’s just so much easier to keep doing things the way
we’ve
always done them.
For technology integration to be a success:
• A clearly articulated, documented mandate for teacher

expectations.
• Understanding what IT integration is (and isn’t) and how the
Facilita-
tor can be utilized to enhance the teaching and learning
experience.
• Ability to flexibly utilize technology tools and infrastructure
to meet
the needs of global 21st century teaching strategies.
• Transparent curriculum infrastructure (wiki)—clear, easy to
access
documentation for the entire school curriculum.
• Clearly articulated Year at a Glance maps from teachers and
the estab-
lishment of static units, building on experiences from past
years.
• Understanding that collaboratively planned units with
authentic
learning experiences that embed the backward design process
result
in higher achievement of the Standards & Benchmarks.
• Flexibility with the classroom dynamic and teaching is an
essential
component of 21st century teaching and learning.
• Creating, documenting and sharing common assessment
practices.
• Sharing successes with technology, both internally and
through
external visionaries on site

• Common planning time with IT Facilitator—grade level teams
(framework requires grade level planning time)
• Classroom technology support
• Revision of curriculum map format to embed IT integration.
• Equitable access to technology resources.
• Professional Development to increase teacher comfort level
with
technology
• Purchase of peripherals and software to enhance the teaching
and
learning experience
Source: Hayes-Jacobs, H. (2008). Curriculum data mapping.
Permission granted by Curriculum Designers, Inc.
www.curriculum21.com
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 251 5/21/14 3:15 PM
www.curriculum21.com
Section 5.7 Standardized Curriculum and Loss of Creativity
Summary
Heidi Hayes Jacobs proposes a succinct approach to planning
for curriculum and instruction
in the 21st century that integrates technology into planning,
professional development, teach-
ing, and assessment. In doing so, she promotes key principles of
curriculum for the modern age,
including the need for students to have experiences that cross
disciplines as well as deep-skill and
problem-solving activities that enhance core-knowledge

disciplines specifically. Her approach is
both student and teacher focused, demonstrating her awareness
that attending to the skills and
capacities of teachers will inevitably enhance the abilities of
students to become independent
learners.
Jacobs maintains that technology integration, as well as
standards and benchmarks for student
academic achievement, must be mandated and not optional. This
does not mean that the design
of curriculum for the 21st century will be standardized. On the
contrary, in order to respond
to global and student-specific needs and demands, the process
in this century’s educational
environments must be flexible, adaptive, and collaborative. She
affirms the basics of backward
design to plan learning experiences with the end goals in mind.
Finally, the author affirms the
importance of documentation, from mapping the design of the
curriculum content and sequence
to multiple levels of assessments that reflect and also transcend
disciplinary boundaries.
1. Propose a set of assessments for a specific concept or
question that both addresses one or
more specific disciplines and also encourages students to think
across those disciplines.
What would the visual organizer or map look like to
demonstrate the assessment activities
and the standards that either one is intended to reflect?
2. What is new and original about Jacobs’ proposal for 21st
century education, if anything? If

nothing is new, what is perhaps a new approach to something
that is familiar in education?
3. Name three objections to Jacobs’ notion that technology
integration should be mandated.
Respond to each objection with clarity, coherence, and
specifics.
4. Jacobs writes: “Teachers need not feel they will become
obsolete.” How would you speak to a
teacher who has exactly that fear and is years from retirement?
5. The title of this Wikispace is “Curriculum Data Mapping.”
What does Jacobs mean by curricu-
lum data and why is it important?
5.7 Standardized Curriculum and Loss of Creativity,
by Nel Noddings
Introduction
Nel Noddings is a well-known scholar, philosopher, and
researcher in the field of education. She
is best known for her work on the ethics of caring and the
necessity of fostering caring in schools
and classrooms. In this excerpt, Noddings raises important
issues with respect to national stan-
dards and the potential negative impact on creativity.
Her cautions are important to include in a chapter focused on
contemporary curriculum and
instruction. Teachers and school leaders continue to work under
pressure to make curriculum
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 252 5/21/14 3:15 PM

decisions to address accountability and standardized testing
goals. In doing so, teaching for cre-
ativity is easily lost. The first concept she proposes for guiding
a dynamic approach in the 21st
century suggests the critical role of creating and making in an
environment that fosters problem
solving and critical thinking. Some of the most innovative
transformations in early 21st-century
schooling involve democratic, collaborative practices that
redefine what it means to work in a
community of learners.
Noddings’ concerns are that national standards, that is, the
CCSS, represent a risk of standard-
ization of content that would ultimately result in less creativity,
less problem solving, and less
meaningful and critical thinking. In this excerpt, Noddings
reminds readers that in order to fos-
ter such creative thinking in students, teachers and school
leaders need to have experience and
repeated practice in creativity.
Readers might consider whether standards themselves represent
a risk of standardization and,
if not, how policy makers can use standards to meet the needs of
all learners without losing
teacher and student innovation and imagination in designing
learning and learning environ-
ments for the future. It is not a matter of abolishing standards,
as Noddings says. Rather, it is a
question of acknowledging the need for quality teachers who
consistently interrogate content,
process, and the standards themselves.

Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from Noddings, N. (2013).
Standardized curriculum and loss of cre-
ativity. Theory Into Practice, 52, 210–215.
The current emphasis on national standards in core content
areas works
against three laudable goals of 21st-century education:
cooperation, critical
thinking, and creativity. I focus on creativity as a critical 21st-
century skill and
argue that the preoccupation with curriculum standards that are
overly pre-
scriptive undermines efforts at facilitating creative processes
and outcomes. I
propose that, rather than abandoning standards, policy makers
must embrace
their role and purposes in more creative ways. I also argue that
to inspire
creativity in curriculum, it is important that society foster
creativity among
teachers and their teaching practice. Teachers do not need to
find a method or
theory that they will follow slavishly. Rather, they need to
analyze a multiplic-
ity of ideas and put their creative powers to work in answering
questions such
as: Where could I use this? For what purpose? With whom? In
what context?
If people want to promote creativity in students, they should
also encourage
it in teachers.
* * *

Creativity
When he was asked what national standards should look like—if
schools
were forced to have them—Harold Howe, former commissioner
of education,
responded that “they should be as vague as possible” (quoted in
Kohn, 1999,
p. 48). He wanted schools and teachers to have the freedom to
use professional
judgment in responding to differences in abilities, interests, and
needs. I add
that the standards should be consonant with standards already
established in
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the various disciplines. At the most general level, they should
be vague enough
to address the needs of all students. The current core standards
in mathemat-
ics do this quite nicely, e.g., “Make sense of problems and
persevere in solving
them.” (One notes, however, that there is nothing new here;
such statements
appeared in math education articles back in the 1930s.) At the
next level, one
needs something like a textbook’s table of contents for each
subject, and one
already has that for each subject in the college preparatory
curriculum. At
the classroom level, teachers need room for the exercise of

professional judg-
ment. At this level, the idea of one set of standards for all is
patently ridiculous
and irresponsible. Probably the best idea is to reject national
content stan-
dards entirely and concentrate on opportunity-to-learn standards
that will
encourage states to provide adequate resources for vocational
education and
other forms of education designed to prepare students for the
workplace or
alternative forms of postsecondary education.
At the state, local, and classroom levels, there should be a
facilitative vague-
ness in the establishment of content. Needs vary. But also, the
methods chosen
by teachers may suggest different content to provide motivation,
to broaden
interest, to offer possible topics and projects. The best teachers,
at least occa-
sionally, offer material from which students create their own
learning objec-
tives. When content is narrowly specified, this mode of teaching
is severely
handicapped.
Being Creative With Standards
E. D. Hirsch is a strong advocate of content specificity. He
expresses admira-
tion for the specificity in a sixth-grade curriculum that requires
students:
to identify the Hwang, Yangtze, and Hsi rivers; the Himalaya
Moun-

tains, the Tlin Ling Mountains, the Central Mountains of Japan,
and
Mount Fuji; the Gobi Desert, the East China Plains, and the
Manchu-
rian Plain; Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Yokohama; the Pacific
Ocean, the
Sea of Japan, and the Yellow Sea. (Hirsch, 1996, p. 31)
He then exclaims admiringly of the same curriculum: “There are
similarly
explicit geographical specifications for Southeast Asia, India,
and Africa!”
(p. 31).
What would motivate children to learn these things? The answer
is probably
a test. But when the test has been successfully completed, it
would be logical
to forget this material. Students need not only a purpose for
learning but, even
more, a reason for remembering, building, using. Further, in an
era of high
technology, information in the form of facts is easily obtained,
but one needs
a reason for seeking it.
The Harvard biologist, E. O. Wilson, recommended organizing
instruction
from the top down; that is, detailed instruction should be
preceded by an
intriguing outline of a big idea or problem—”show why it
matters to them and
will matter for a lifetime” (Wilson, 2006, p. 131). Wilson
directed his advice
bur81496_05_c05_225-270.indd 254 5/21/14 3:15 PM

to the teachers of undergraduate and graduate students, but I
have used the
approach successfully with high school students in mathematics.
The teacher
starts with a significant, challenging problem and invites the
class to explore
ways of tackling it. Usually, because they lack the knowledge
and skills soon
to be taught, they are unable to solve the problem, but the
attempt gets their
creative juices flowing, and the challenge motivates them to
learn the neces-
sary details.
When the unit is well underway, a creative teacher will
“proceed laterally . . .
into the consequences of the phenomenon to history, religion,
ethics, and the
creative arts” (Wilson, 2006, p. 131). Always? Of course not,
but as often as the
teacher’s resources and the students’ interests allow. How do
teachers evalu-
ate such lessons? They do not often use a test. They watch for
engagement, for
expressions of interest.
If some students show interest in one of these lateral
excursions, the teacher
must be prepared to offer further guidance. For many, these
opportunities
generate the great joy of teaching—the excitement of continued

learning, of
building a repertoire, of sharing elements of that repertoire with
students.
The material thus shared is, again, not subjected to formal
testing. It is a free
gift that some students will use creatively to further their own
learning. All of
this is put at risk when the curriculum is narrowly prescribed
and teachers
are held tightly to a specific learning objective for every lesson.
References
Hirsch, E. D. (1996). The schools we need: And why we don’t
have them. New York: Doubleday.
Kohn, A. (1999). The schools our children deserve. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
Wilson, E. O. (2006). The creation: An appeal to save life on
earth. New York: Norton.
Source: Noddings, N. (2013). Standardized curriculum and loss
of creativity. Theory into Practice, 52(3): 210–215. © 2013
Routledge.
Summary
Nel Noddings raises issues related to cooperation, critical
thinking, and creativity in view of
the advent of national standards in the 21st century. She
advocates for vague standards that
afford teachers the opportunities to tailor learning for individual
students’ interests and needs.
Although this excerpt does not fully address assessment,
Noddings objects to designing curricu-
lar content that is overly specific and is assessed only on
traditional tests. She suggests that the
repertoire that is built when students and teachers engage

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