Integrating Technology--Part 2

Last week I introduced the concept of the SAMR model of technology integration and discussed the Enhancement levels of that model. This week we will finish discussing the model and think about technology as a transformation of the classroom.

Modification is the first level of Transformation using technology. In this level, technology allows a significant redesign of the classroom. This form of technology integration can rarely be done without specifically planning for it. Whether, it means going out to find a technology to modify a current lesson or discovering a new technology and modifying your lessons to allow the technology to bring a new experience to your students. Examples include various authentic assessments that allow students to create in multimedia formats such as recording their narrative essays in audio and illustrating them using stock or self-created images. Using Google My Maps to link images and other sites to specific places of importance in a novel or historical place. The global sharing of documents and making visible of research and other information. This layer of the model starts incorporating distance collaboration and authentic audiences that aren’t possible without the integration of the technology. In the 21st century, citizens of the digital world are not only consumers of the content but creators of that content. A house-mom can publish her thoughts on any topic through a digital blog and a CEO can create his own advertising for his company and t to the web free of cost. Content is no longer the property of the educated or the wealthy. The modification level allows (or requires) us to send students out into the world with the capabilities to create content as well as the ethical standards that we expect for previous content creators.

Reinvention is the last level of the model. In this level, technology allows for the creation of new academic tasks that can’t be done without the use of the technology. This type of integration not only takes planning but effort and research. Reinventing the way that we think about activities and assessments requires more than just an urge to use the cool new thing we got at home in our classrooms. The reinvention level requires us to search for specific technology that can be used in the classroom and research the ways that it can help us achieve the standards to which we must hold our students. Examples of this kind of activity include Skype calls with other classrooms around the globe, virtual reality field trips with professionals to places inaccessible to most students, multimedia creations by groups using collaboration software and published online, and so many more that haven’t even been imagined yet. This level is the holy grail of technology integration. It is what we all strive to bring to the table. But it is not the type of integration that we can achieve every day in the classroom. It can only happen on specific occasions in the few instances we can manage to put that much effort and class time into making it happen.

This model is designed to help educators not only identify what they have been doing but to help us reflect on our integration and move towards reinvention. It isn’t enough to bring technology into our classrooms anymore. We have to plan for it, execute it with our students, and reflect on how we can make it better the next time that we use it. Each time that we use technology in the classroom we need to put it in our lesson plans and make sure that the use is intentional. We need to be working towards both the student and educator ISTE standards and pushing our students to become the citizens that we need in the digital world in the future. We need to push ourselves to not only plan and think through the technology integration in our classrooms but we need to do so consistently to ensure that the technology we are using is purposeful and beneficial to our students and their future.

Next week I will start to break down, analyze, and put into action the brand new ISTE educator standards as part of my 4 part series on the ISTE standards for both educators and students.

 Illustration:SAMR Model by Sylvia Duckworth