mixitupdifferentiation

Technology has its place in a differentiated classroom. According the ISTE, there are a set of standards that all students need to achieve in order to be technologically literate - http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS
Integrating technology into a differentiated classroom should consider these standards and allow for activities that move students towards achieving them. Students should develop proficiency with technological skills, and they should use technology to assist in research, thinking and learning processes.

Integrating technology with differentiation can occur in a variety of ways:
1. Content - web safe Internet Resources - online encyclopedias, Nettrekker (www.nettrekker.com), and so many others.
2. Process - WebQuests, Internet Scavenger hunts, using graphic organizers to organize information (Inspiration and spreadsheeting programs), other research based Internet sites and software to boost student learning and achievement such as www.readwritethink.org and http://illuminations.nctm.org/. Additional student interactive websites in reading and math that align with Illinois standards can be found be clicking here on reading and math. Stay tuned - an updated listing of interactive websites for the Common Core Standards and for the Smartboard is coming this summer, 2011.
3. Product - Graphic organizers, presentation programs like Powerpoint, word processing programs, spreadsheeting programs, wikis, blogs, podcasts, video, etc...

As Carol Tomlinson said in a speech in suburban Chicago in fall of 2007, "We need to get students thinking." Technology should be integrated in such a way that it is a tool to support thinking and learning.