4Cs of Educational Technology Instruction
Elly Walsh-Rock | INST 51020 | 1.03 Your Core Four
The 4Cs of edtech draw on both the original list published by Battelle for Kids in 2019, and a teacher's own personal philosophy. These 4Cs are the grounding principal for engaging in technology within educational experiences and should be used to evaluate the benefit of any edtech experience. Click on the cards to the right to read about my personal 4Cs.
Ability to clearly and concisely articulate an explanation based on information and data collected.
The ability to look at something in the world and ask a genuine question about it for the pure joy of building knowledge.
Use this side of the card to provide more information about a topic. Focus on one concept. Make learning and communication more efficient.
Analyzing information available and logically and objectivly determining a solution or answer.
The skills being developed are built within a career context; the tools students are learning with are tools used by professionals.
Title
Write a brief description here
Career Oriented
Curiosity
Critical Thinking
Communication
“Communication is the key to education, understanding and peace.”
James Bryce
Communication
In Practice
Alignment to Philosophy
Communication in edtech falls into two buckets: Expectations and Ideas. Expectations - for students to engage in edtech thoughtfully and ethically they MUST engage in conversations about the purpose of a new edtech tool. By naming the purpose of a tool boundaries are clearly set for what it can and cannot be used for. Ideas - through practicing, students explore how to communicate effectivly with an edtech tool to others and what the bounds of the tool are.
Communication between student and teacher about expectations, objectives, and feedback is essential for a student to be successful. When a teacher models this clear communication students have an example of what it looks like and will remember how it makes them feel.
“Looking back, I realize that nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make.”
Paul Berg
Curiosity
In Practice
Alignment to Philosophy
Curiousity for edtech tools allows students to explore without a feeling of "being wrong" when no right answer exists. When learning a new edtech tool I would ask students to compare the tool to ones they are familiar with and name what is similar and what is different, even this simple act of picking up on icon patterns helps scaffold the process of asking "what is different?". Then I would give them a task (simlar to this assignment) where they would explore the new tool and try things out until they worked out and completed the task.
Students must leave school with not just the ability to learn but the want to understand and ask questions around them. Students have to be taught how to ask questions and how to discover answers through trial and failure - these skills help contribute to a midset of curiousity. By fostering curiousity students are able to engage with anything new by asking questions.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Critical Thinking
In Practice
Alignment to Philosophy
When I was in high school I had a teacher who made us fact-check Wikipedia pages. It remains one of the most formative experiences from my time in school because it drove home for me that 'just because it is on the internet, that does not make it true'. I would have students do a similar activity where they investigated the social media claims of influencers to see if they are based in fact. Teaching students to question and confirm information they hear helps build their critical thiking skills.
Just students have to be taught curiousity, they have to be taught how to think critically. In today's society it is essential that students are equipped with the thinking tools that will allow them to draw logical conclusions from credible evidence. With the free range and abolishment of limits on many tech tools students have to learn that a tech tool is not always correct just because it is a piece of tech.
“(...) given an educational profile, job recommendations can be provided together with suggestions on education opportunities for re- and upskilling in support of lifelong learning.”
Guoqing Zhu et al.
Career Orientation
Alignment to Philosophy
In Practice
I hold two truths in my philosophy, it is unreasonable for us to ask teens to plan for a career they might be interest in in 10-15 years AND our education and employment system reward student preperation for the workforce. Because of this second truth students need to learn edtech and tech tools that are similiar or the exact tools they will use in the workforce. The rets of the 3Cs are transferrable to any tech tool but the most helpful ones for students are those they will be asked to use in a future job.
Finding the tech tools that are conistent with the workforce requires building strong community and industry partnerships for licensing and also for instruction support. Ideally, students are able to learn from folxs who use these tools regularly meaning students get a more thorough and long-term useful skill set.
These 4Cs are in alignment with my personal teaching philosophy because they situate students as the ones actively learning and gaining the skills necessary to thoughtfully engage and use tech tools after they leave school. As teachers it is essential that we are not only teaching students how to use this tech but also how to question the information it provides and how it works, this helps promote an insightful and engaged citzenry.
Summary
The 4Cs the guide and ground my instructional of educational technology tools are: Communication Curiousity Critical Thinking Career Orientation
Works Cited
Davis, J. D. (2024, August 13). The 4 C’s of Technology Integration. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/4-cs-technology-integration King, M. L., Jr. (1947). The purpose of education. Maroon Tiger, 1947. Nobel Prize Outreach. (2004). Paul Berg – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1980/berg/biographical/ Thornhill-Miller, B., Camarda, A., Mercier, M., Burkhardt, J.-M., Morisseau, T., Bourgeois-Bougrine, S., Vinchon, F., El Hayek, S., Augereau-Landais, M., Mourey, F., Feybesse, C., Sundquist, D., & Lubart, T. (2023). Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration: Assessment, Certification, and Promotion of 21st Century Skills for the Future of Work and Education. Journal of Intelligence, 11(3), 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054 Valenzuela, J. (n.d.). Beginning the School Year With a Consistent Communication Plan. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/developing-good-communication-plan-students-families/ Zhu, G., Kopalle, N. A., Wang, Y., Liu, X., Jona, K., & Börner, K. (2020). Community-Based Data Integration of Course and Job Data in Support of Personalized Career-Education Recommendations. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 57(1), e324. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.324
4Cs of Educational Technology Instruction
Elly Walsh-Rock
Created on October 27, 2025
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4Cs of Educational Technology Instruction
Elly Walsh-Rock | INST 51020 | 1.03 Your Core Four
The 4Cs of edtech draw on both the original list published by Battelle for Kids in 2019, and a teacher's own personal philosophy. These 4Cs are the grounding principal for engaging in technology within educational experiences and should be used to evaluate the benefit of any edtech experience. Click on the cards to the right to read about my personal 4Cs.
Ability to clearly and concisely articulate an explanation based on information and data collected.
The ability to look at something in the world and ask a genuine question about it for the pure joy of building knowledge.
Use this side of the card to provide more information about a topic. Focus on one concept. Make learning and communication more efficient.
Analyzing information available and logically and objectivly determining a solution or answer.
The skills being developed are built within a career context; the tools students are learning with are tools used by professionals.
Title
Write a brief description here
Career Oriented
Curiosity
Critical Thinking
Communication
“Communication is the key to education, understanding and peace.”
James Bryce
Communication
In Practice
Alignment to Philosophy
Communication in edtech falls into two buckets: Expectations and Ideas. Expectations - for students to engage in edtech thoughtfully and ethically they MUST engage in conversations about the purpose of a new edtech tool. By naming the purpose of a tool boundaries are clearly set for what it can and cannot be used for. Ideas - through practicing, students explore how to communicate effectivly with an edtech tool to others and what the bounds of the tool are.
Communication between student and teacher about expectations, objectives, and feedback is essential for a student to be successful. When a teacher models this clear communication students have an example of what it looks like and will remember how it makes them feel.
“Looking back, I realize that nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make.”
Paul Berg
Curiosity
In Practice
Alignment to Philosophy
Curiousity for edtech tools allows students to explore without a feeling of "being wrong" when no right answer exists. When learning a new edtech tool I would ask students to compare the tool to ones they are familiar with and name what is similar and what is different, even this simple act of picking up on icon patterns helps scaffold the process of asking "what is different?". Then I would give them a task (simlar to this assignment) where they would explore the new tool and try things out until they worked out and completed the task.
Students must leave school with not just the ability to learn but the want to understand and ask questions around them. Students have to be taught how to ask questions and how to discover answers through trial and failure - these skills help contribute to a midset of curiousity. By fostering curiousity students are able to engage with anything new by asking questions.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Critical Thinking
In Practice
Alignment to Philosophy
When I was in high school I had a teacher who made us fact-check Wikipedia pages. It remains one of the most formative experiences from my time in school because it drove home for me that 'just because it is on the internet, that does not make it true'. I would have students do a similar activity where they investigated the social media claims of influencers to see if they are based in fact. Teaching students to question and confirm information they hear helps build their critical thiking skills.
Just students have to be taught curiousity, they have to be taught how to think critically. In today's society it is essential that students are equipped with the thinking tools that will allow them to draw logical conclusions from credible evidence. With the free range and abolishment of limits on many tech tools students have to learn that a tech tool is not always correct just because it is a piece of tech.
“(...) given an educational profile, job recommendations can be provided together with suggestions on education opportunities for re- and upskilling in support of lifelong learning.”
Guoqing Zhu et al.
Career Orientation
Alignment to Philosophy
In Practice
I hold two truths in my philosophy, it is unreasonable for us to ask teens to plan for a career they might be interest in in 10-15 years AND our education and employment system reward student preperation for the workforce. Because of this second truth students need to learn edtech and tech tools that are similiar or the exact tools they will use in the workforce. The rets of the 3Cs are transferrable to any tech tool but the most helpful ones for students are those they will be asked to use in a future job.
Finding the tech tools that are conistent with the workforce requires building strong community and industry partnerships for licensing and also for instruction support. Ideally, students are able to learn from folxs who use these tools regularly meaning students get a more thorough and long-term useful skill set.
These 4Cs are in alignment with my personal teaching philosophy because they situate students as the ones actively learning and gaining the skills necessary to thoughtfully engage and use tech tools after they leave school. As teachers it is essential that we are not only teaching students how to use this tech but also how to question the information it provides and how it works, this helps promote an insightful and engaged citzenry.
Summary
The 4Cs the guide and ground my instructional of educational technology tools are: Communication Curiousity Critical Thinking Career Orientation
Works Cited
Davis, J. D. (2024, August 13). The 4 C’s of Technology Integration. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/4-cs-technology-integration King, M. L., Jr. (1947). The purpose of education. Maroon Tiger, 1947. Nobel Prize Outreach. (2004). Paul Berg – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1980/berg/biographical/ Thornhill-Miller, B., Camarda, A., Mercier, M., Burkhardt, J.-M., Morisseau, T., Bourgeois-Bougrine, S., Vinchon, F., El Hayek, S., Augereau-Landais, M., Mourey, F., Feybesse, C., Sundquist, D., & Lubart, T. (2023). Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration: Assessment, Certification, and Promotion of 21st Century Skills for the Future of Work and Education. Journal of Intelligence, 11(3), 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054 Valenzuela, J. (n.d.). Beginning the School Year With a Consistent Communication Plan. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/developing-good-communication-plan-students-families/ Zhu, G., Kopalle, N. A., Wang, Y., Liu, X., Jona, K., & Börner, K. (2020). Community-Based Data Integration of Course and Job Data in Support of Personalized Career-Education Recommendations. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 57(1), e324. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.324