“Effective integration is seen when technology enables learning that: is extended beyond that achieved without technology; is focused on social studies content and skills and not the technology; clarifies relationships among science, technology, and society, and enhances the skills, knowledge, and values of good citizenship.” This definition of effective technology integration, as provided in this article, will serve as a target check for the units I implement in my future classrooms. Modifying the content and skills portion of this “cross check” list makes it applicable across the curriculum.
Our students need to be fluent with using technology as a tool for greater achievements. Technology will continue to change. Encouraging our students to look to technology as a tool that can help them explore and understand the world around, focusing more on the knowledge gained using technology rather than on the technology itself, will build the critical thinking and problem solving skills our students will need to be successful in the global society of the 21st century. Focusing on technology as a tool, regardless of the specific type of technology, PowerPoints, Blogs, Webquests, will help our students look at their knowledge needs and wants and encourage them to evaluate the current technologies as a tool to help them achieve their goals.
I think it is very appropriate to include both students and teachers in this article’s title. The pace at which technologies become accessible and outdated can be intimidating to even the “techiest” of teachers. Empowering our students as technology tool hunters and exploring a variety of technologies that suit the specific goals, will eliminate the need for the teacher to be an expert on every type of technology, a goal not only unreasonable, but also unnecessary.
The steps provided in this article guide the teacher through steps to identify child-friendly and researched based web-sites. This is a great exercise for teachers and will help students differentiate between authentic research sites and “stuff on the www” that may or may not be accurate. The inquiry-based nature of the internet workshops will keep students engaged as they discover new information related to their topics. Using a variety of text based and online sources for a unit will appeal to a broader spectrum of learners by providing a variety of ways to research. Providing a variety of media to share their knowledge, such as the “I am” poems and the “Digital Story Slides” are other aspects that reach out to a diverse group of learners.
The classroom blogs is a great way to appeal to these millenium learners. Many of our students will be more comfortable “texting” on their blogs than speaking out in class. However I have noticed with my own daughters and their friends, that if I refer to a topic we have already “texted” about earlier, our “in person” discussions are more in-depth. Students that have blogged about a topic will come to class filled with ideas for discussing and writing.
The collaborative possibilities of blogs is an area in which I am most excited to explore. Blogs can be accessed and shared in so many venues, with classmates, schoolmates, across multiple schools in the community, state, country, or a abroad. Blogs can be shared with authors, community members, or as an outreach to others. The possibilities for collaboration are endless.
September 22, 2009 at 8:14 pm |
Lisa, I like your comment about teaching our students to be technology tool hunters! I was just reminded today about something we learned earlier and that is that it is more important to teach dispositions that breed success than it is to teach specific skills or even knowledge. Most things can be learned by people who want to learn. I know we must teach students certain things, but it is so vital to teach them how to learn on their own and to give them the tools they need for further learning on any topic. A person with the disposition to try to new things and explore new worlds can do anything! I am pretty sure that even the things we have learned in college in the last two to three years will be “old news” in short time. Look at PowerPoint-it was cutting edge when we came back to school and now…not so much!