The Colorado Department of Education has no standards for technology before the high school years; and yet, computer science secondary standards are voluntary. For this reason, many students may not have their first encounter with educational technology until high school. However, students are exposed to technological tools every day. Therefore, as a school, we must provide understanding and support on how to use this technology to serve our students' learning. Once we have established the "how to", our goal is to work on skills such as: I will be able to access digital content (audio, video) to develop basic knowledge and delve deeper into topics. I will be able to use digital templates, graphic organizers and/or storyboards to record questions and plan investigations. (Washington State ISTE Standard) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay So, at this point, technology becomes a tool and not an end; a tool that occupies an important place in curriculum and lesson planning. Another aspect of technology is the area of computational thinking. The International Society for Technology in Education defines computational thinking as “an approach to problem solving that enables the integration of digital technologies with human ideas. It does not replace an emphasis on creativity, reasoning, and critical thinking, but emphasizes again such skills by highlighting ways to organize a problem so that a computer can help. Extends and reorients human creativity and critical thinking by allowing the computer to extend and reorient problem-solving ability problem solving that provides tools for students to organize, identify, analyze, and produce a solution. It provides the student with a set of perspectives to tackle problems and all these skills involved during this process are transferable in any type of subject, not only in visible STEAM, it also develops during this process: perseverance when faced with a problem, tolerance for ambiguity, ability to deal with open problems, ability to communicate to seek support and work in a team, creativity, collaboration, etc. Students are able to start coding at a very young age and build this mindset. On a broader level, bringing computer science and programming to students at a younger age is a good way to work against the gender gap that is still a reality today.
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