ABC Community School

Austyn Walters
July 24, 2022
Dear members of the Clark County School Board,

I am a teacher at ABC Community School, and I am here to talk to you about the

imposing budget cuts our school will receive that will force us to discontinue the use of

technology in the classroom. Removing technology from classrooms will impact the quality of

students’ education, but it will also put them drastically behind their peers in technological

literacy. The use of technology in the classroom is no longer a luxury but a necessity for

students’ education in the 21st century.

Technology has increased the quality of students’ education and provided students with

educational opportunities that textbooks and worksheets could not provide. Students can learn

about and experience other cultures via video conferences or phone calls with students from

other parts of the world. Websites can help students improve their math, science, and language

arts skills by providing instantaneous feedback and assistance that one teacher juggling a class of

30 students might not be able to offer. Providing students with common computer programs and

software and teaching them how to navigate and properly utilize this software will assist students

in the workforce where knowledge and experience using these programs is expected for most

jobs. Above all, technology can provide additional assistance and support to students with

disabilities. Assistive technology has been proven vital to disabled students’ education. Assistive

websites, programs, and devices have provided the support and assistance these students need

that non-technology options could never replicate.

Technology has become an essential part of the classroom and removing it would only

harm students and teachers alike. A study done by Laura Schindler, Gary Burkholder, Osama

Morad, and Craig Marsh on how technology impacts student engagement found that, “One

overarching theme is that most of the technologies we reviewed had a positive influence on

multiple indicators of student engagement, which may lead to a larger return on investment in
terms of learning outcomes.” Undoubtedly, technology has an overwhelming impact on student

education, so I ask you to rethink your decision and allow ABC Community School to keep

technology in the classroom for the betterment of our students.

Thank you for your time,

Austyn Walters
 Works Cited
Burkholder, G., Marsh, C., Morad, O., & Schindler, L. (2017). Computer-based technology and
student engagement: a critical review of the literature. International Journal of
Educational Technology in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0063-0
 The Nevada Performance Indicators and the National Educational Technology Standards

are the guidelines for student technological literacy and set the expectation that certain

technology milestones should be mastered by a specific grade level. These standards help guide

teachers’ lesson plans and help keep parents informed about what level their children should be

at in terms of technological literacy. These standards help shape our students’ education and help

them master the technology skills and knowledge they need for a successful future.

The Nevada Performance Indicators and the National Educational Technology Standards

share a similarity in the technology skills students are required to learn and the order in which

they should be taught. Both the Nevada State and National standards encourage students to use

technology in a meaningful, productive, and safe manner. The technology standards encourage

creativity, both innovative thinking and artistic creation. Both these standards also place an

emphasis on the fact that technology is an important tool for communication and require students

to use technology to collaborate with their peers and globally with other students and educators.

The National Educational Technology Standards are more generic than the Nevada

Performance Indicators. The national standards are less specific about what skills should be

mastered at what grade level; the skills are more universal and can be applied to any grade level.

On the other hand, the Nevada Performance Indicators details what knowledge and skill set

students should have by a specific grade, the standards becoming more advanced and specific as

students’ education continues.

These standards show the importance of technological literacy in education and require

students to be taught these skills in school. Therefore, for the lesson plan I have included, I chose

to use the standard from The National Educational Technology Standards 1.6.b: Students create

original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
Name of Lesson: You Too Can Be an Artist

Grade Level Appropriateness: 3rd Grade

Technology Content Standard Addressed:

1.6.b: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into

new creations.

Other Content Standard Addressed:

VA:Cr1.2.2 Make art or design with various materials and tools to explore personal interests,

questions, and curiosity.

MA:Pr5.2.2 Demonstrate use of experimentation skills (for example, trial and error, playful

practice) within and through media arts productions.

Objective: Students will use search engines to research famous artists, and then replicate and

learn about their paintings using computer drawing tools.

Materials needed to facilitate the lesson:

• Google Arts & Culture

• Paint or another computer drawing tool

Suggested group size: Students will work independently.

Procedures:

Step one: Open any web browser and type artsandculture.google.com into the search bar.

Step two: Click on the three bars in the top left corner and click on “artists” in the drop-down

menu.
Step three: Select any artist from the list and have students read any information or stories that

the website has to offer to learn more about the artist they selected.

Step four: Select a painting from the artist and paste it into any computer drawing program.

Step five: Have students try to replicate the painting to the best of their ability using only the

tools that the software has to offer.

Step six: Have students write a short paragraph about why they chose this particular artist and

painting.

Assessment: To earn full credit for this assignment, students must recreate a famous painting

and write a short paragraph explaining why they chose this artist and what drew them to this

particular painting. The assignment must include a picture of the original painting along with the

name of the painting and the artist.