Technology Integration--Part 1

“We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world.” - David Warlick

All teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. Many teachers do so without even thinking about it. Technology is so embedded in our way of life that it is hard to imagine teaching without some kind of technology. Most districts require that each room have at least a projector, computer, and document camera. With so much technology integration happening, many teachers have put it on the back burner. (It will be in the classroom so I don’t need to make specific plans for it.) I am here to argue that this is a problem. Just like content, we will never be able to ensure that we are using the best technology in the most effective ways unless we start planning how we use it in our teaching. In last week’s post I rolled out my new planning template, which included a section to indicate the technology that I would use during the lesson and gave a space to evaluate that technology’s usage using the SAMR model. SAMR is a Technology Integration model introduced by Dr. Ruben Puentedura in 2006. This model has two segments, Enhancement and Transformation, and four levels, Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Reinvention. The two levels within Enhancement indicate technology usage in its basic format, giving us new ways to do things that we already did in the classroom. The two Transformation levels indicate the usage of technology in ways that bring new experiences to our students because of the technology being used. Each of the levels has its place in the classroom, but simply the act of reflecting and planning the usage of technology helps us as teachers to better incorporate it and use it to our students’ benefit.

Substitution is the first level of technology usage and lands at the left of the Enhancement portion of the integration continuum. In this level, technology acts as a direct replacement for tools and activities that are already being used in the classroom. This level provides no functional change to the classroom. This is the easiest and most common way that we use technology in the classroom. Many teachers integrate technology at this level because it has become a way of life for us in the 21st century. Examples of this kind of integration include having students type their papers instead of writing them by hand, complete a Google Form instead of a traditional quiz, or fill in a digital worksheet. When we use this kind of technology it might make our lives easier or save us time, but it hasn’t actually changed the way we are teaching or the way the students are interacting with the content.

Augmentation is the second level of Enhancement. When we integrate technology at this level, we are adding function to what we normally do in the classroom. With augmentation, you directly replace a tool but you add some functional change to the previous task. This is another version of technology integration that many teachers utilize without having to actively plan for it because of the nature of the technology that we use. Examples of this level of technology integration include using Google Docs’s comment feature for peer editing, using Google Earth rulers to measure the distances between places, embedding videos into your Google Form quizzes, students complete a digital worksheet using a link to a website. This kind of technology integration does more than replace the basic classroom tool but it doesn’t do anything particularly new. Augmentation is simply the use of technical tools to do the same things we have been doing in the classroom for years, but make our lives easier in the process. *A note about Augmentation vs. Substitution. As technology becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives the line between these two levels becomes more blurred. Some will argue that simply taking a quiz using Google Forms is Augmentation because the immediate grading and saving on paper adds functionality. I put the basic google forms in the substitution category because as we grow into a society where technology is ever-present in our lives some basic technological functions are expected and other classroom functions are being left behind.*

Part 2--Next Week!!

 Illustration:SAMR Model by Sylvia Duckworth