STANDARD COURSE OF STUDY

PHILOSOPHY

The strength of technology is that it provides an excellent platform where students can collect information in multiple formats and then organize, link, and discover relationships between facts and events. An array of tools for acquiring information and for thinking and expression allows more students more ways to enter the learning enterprise successfully and to live productive lives in the global, digital, and information-based future they all face. (1)

The K-12 Computer/Technology Skills Standard Course of Study identifies the essential knowledge and skills that all students need to be active, lifelong learners in a technology intensive environment. Technology is undergoing rapid change, and new and improved technological advances appear almost daily. The curriculum is designed to form the foundation for continuous learning and to be applicable to ever-changing innovations.

In 1995, the State Board of Education published The New ABCs' of Public Education (2), its plan for restructuring education in our state. The B in the ABCs' focuses instruction on the basics - specifically the mastery of reading, mathematics, and writing. Computer/technology skills represent a new "basic". When integrated with the core curricular areas, these skills enable students to improve and enhance their learning of the other basic skills.

The Computer/Technology Skills Standard Course of Study involves the development of skills over time. Computer/Technology Skills proficiency is not an end in itself, but lays a foundation for lifelong learning. These skills become building blocks with which to meet the challenges of personal and professional life. To become technologically proficient, the student must develop the skills over time, through integrated activities in all content areas K-12, rather than through one specific course. These skills are necessary for all students and should be introduced and refined collaboratively by all K-12 teachers as an integral part of the learning process.

The chart below illustrates the alignment of North Carolina K-12 Computer/Technology Skills Competency Goals and how they relate to the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). (3)

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