Eric.ed.gov – Standards-Based Technology Integration for Emergent Bilinguals

Today’s educators serve the United States public-school system at a time of considerable curricular, technological, and demographic change. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards in Math and English Language Arts significantly altered the curricular landscape of K-12 classrooms. On the heels of this reform came the adoptions of English Development/Proficiency Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. These new standards are not only more academically rigorous, but they also call for teachers to prepare students for successful learning with 21st century tools. Increased expectations for technology integration have resulted in school districts seeking ways to improve their Internet infrastructure and provide 1:1 computing devices for all students. Such standards reform and technology demands have also come at a time of significant demographic change in the U.S., particularly in states like California, where emergent bilingual students comprise over 22% of the K-12 public school population and represent over 60 language groups (California Department of Education, 2015b). Teachers of emergent bilinguals are often faced with unique changes to support their students in meeting the new content and English language standards while also gaining equitable access to technology. This article aims to address this challenge by presenting a standards-based framework for supporting technology integration with emergent bilingual students. The framework adapts a leading model for technology integration, the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, and aligns it with English Language Development (ELD) and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards. The article also discusses exemplar activities, technologies, and essential planning questions to aid teachers in designing technology-integrated lessons for a multicultural, multilingual student population.