Hannah T's List: Teaching Technology through a Space Unit

This document is a must-read for all technology education teachers. It describes the instructional power of digital games, social networking and simulations and how teachers can utilise and incorporate them into their classroom in the most effective way.

This is another Mars rover design challenge however this is a sample of student's work. A technology teacher can use this document to plan assessment or a final project and take ideas from it to incorporate in their own classroom or unit plan.

The Science, Engineering, NASA Site Of Remote Sensing (SENSORS) project aims to help bring remote sensing and tele-robotics to upper elementary and middle school audiences. By creating a network of simulated environments, ranging from the Moon to Mars to Antarctica to a working city-scape, SENSORS gives student opportunities to explore and automate remote environments via the web. This is an excellent program for a technology education teacher to become involved with as the learning opportunities for students are great.

This site details a race that a teacher could implement with modifications in their classroom. Students follow the DDE cycle and create a moon buggy that requires the students to race them as an end goal.

This design challenge is targeted at high school students in the Michigan area. It involves designing, developing and evaluating a mars rover. Although in a different country and aimed at higher year levels teachers can take ideas and modify the challenge to suit primary school students and as such is a good resource for technology education teachers.

The aim of the MOON Project is to electronically link groups of school-children in years 4-8 as research buddies. Children from Europe, USA, and Australia are currently participating in the Project. This is a great tool to use in the primary classroom as it not only meets essential learning criteria but it also promotes international connections in an educational context.

4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom by offering online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use. Discover valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs students.

This site has educational games, activities, videos and articles as well as sections such as cool spots, kid quest, ask Amy and speak out which students can engage with while not realising that they are participating in technology education at the same time. Some of the sections directly relate to a unit on space and therefore is a good resource for teachers to be aware of.

This article is excellent for future teachers and looks at Education in the 21st Century. It explores what society is like in the 21st century, 21st century skills that are needed to be active participants in society as well as outlining various tools and software that can be utilised to teach effectively in the 21st century.

This presentation uses provoking visuals to convey its message of who a 21st century learner is. It is an easy to understand and creative presentation that future teachers should definitely watch.

"It's easy to talk but its not the way to encourage and engage children today" this article says. It describes the book 'Teaching for Tomorrow' by Ted McCain and the 6 main steps he outlines should be a focus for 21st century teachers. They are;
1 Resist the temptation to ‘tell’;
2 Stop teaching decontextualised content;
3 Stop giving students the final product of our thinking;
4 Make a shift in our thinking – problems first, teaching second;
5 Progressively withdraw from helping students; and
6 Re-evaluate evaluation.

This is an excellent peer-reviewed document that describes four models of the learner of the future; the collaborator, the free agent, the wise analyser and the creative synthesiser. It also describes a 21st century learning environment. Well worth a look for teachers and educators.

Although American, the Centre for Media Literacy provides invaluable information for teachers focusing on the question "How do we best prepare our young people to succeed in the 21st century?" This is an important aspect for teachers to understand as these are the students they will be teaching. This site defines the need for change, highlights the 6 key elements of 21st century learning, gives 9 steps to build momentum when implementing 21st century skills and finally suggests milestones for improving learning and education.

This article explains who a 21st century learner is and how to teach them. As society changes teaching strategies must also be altered to reflect the changes of society and this document explains how.

This site gives information for educators about 21st century learning spaces which is extremely useful when teaching today's students - 21st century learners.

STE is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving learning and teaching by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and higher education. The educator resources page is especially useful for teachers as it provides links to publications, professional development courses and assessment, curriculum and technology integration documents as well as various other features.

Although this paper was published in America, it does explore the value of technology education and why it should be taught in schools. It also explains what is meant when people say they teach technology education i.e. what it involves. The philosophy, implementation, organisation and implementation process was studied.

This video found on TeacherTube, explains why we need to teach technology education in schools. It presents the case of technology education in an engaging and inspiring way which would convince any teacher unsure about including it in their classroom of its value.

The International Technology Education Association is a professional association for technology education teachers that teach a curriculum called 'technology education' which is problem-based learning utilizing math, science and technology principles. It also provides various publications for the teachers to look over and the site also facilitates networking between professionals.

Published by Education Queeensland, this document provides teachers with design challenge ideas that they can use in the classrooms to teach technology education from years 1-7.