Preparing for CCSS Implementation: Determining the State of Web 2.0 Technology

Adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the United States places technological demands on educational personnel to have the infrastructure to implement CCSS digital assessments and to meet the CCSS goal of college and career preparedness for school students. Leaders in one state undertook a research project to investigate the preparedness of school-library personnel in local districts to offer Web 2.0 technology for instructional use by students and educators. The author provides a discussion of CCSS and technology, as well as the rationale, methodology, findings, and recommendations of the Web 2.0 research. This research has professional-growth implications for teacher-librarians and classroom teachers who are digital immigrants.IntroductionIn order to prepare for Common Core State Standards (CCSS), McShane (2014) advised that personnel in educational jurisdictions" . determine their existing technological capacity" and ". accurately determine new technology needs" (p. 29). The Maryland State Department of Education, therefore, undertook a research project to investigate the preparedness of school-library personnel in local districts to offer Web 2.0 technology for instructional use by students and educators.Rationale for the ResearchMany issues are in play for integrating new instructional technologies into educational experiences, such as the adoption of the national CCSS in the United States and the expressed need for students to learn technological skills to compete in the twenty-first century. In fact, the CCSS that are being adopted by many of the educational jurisdictions in the United States (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2014) create a major impetus for implementing Web 2.0 technologies. Panda (2014) confirmed that technology has been emphasized in the implementation of CCSS. Foltos (2014) contended that technology can boost learning in the implementation of CCSS. Clearly, implementation of instructional technology is a major component of the CCSS, culminating in many students completing the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments online (PARCC, 2014). Not all states will use PARCC assessments that require online testing. However, because many may develop their own statewide online assessments (McShane, 2014), both educators and students must be proficient in use of digital tools for such assessments (Levin & Fletcher, 2014). Use of technological tools for CCSS assessment can make results of testing available faster (Levin & Fletcher, 2014). A second major impetus for implementing Web 2.0 technologies is the realization, emerging over the past decade, that all students need the technological skills necessary to compete in the twenty-first-century workplace. Dickens and Churches (2012) contended, "It is no longer enough that we educate only to the standards of the traditional literacies. To be competent and capable in the 21st century requires a completely different set of skills-the 21st-century fluencies" (p. vi). Some experts see" . the new literacies of online reading and communicating" (Drew, 2012, p. 334) as critical to the CCSS goal of having students college- and career-ready (Holzweiss, 2014; Rust, 2012). Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21; 2014), Mardis (2008), and American Association of School Libraries (AASL; 2007) concurred that K-12 students need skills to make them fit for employment in the twenty-first centuryDefinition of TermsThe following terms used in this article may need definition;* Blog, A blog is "an online journal comprised of links and postings in reverse chronological order. Alternatively called web logs or weblogs (derived from web + log)" (Maryland State Department of Education [MSDE], 2007, p. 25). * Digital curation. Digital curation is defined as encompassing ". all aspects of the lifecycle of digital objects" (Gracy & Kahn, 2012, p. 32). The archival function of digital curation ". …