E.T., Atari games found in Alamogordo up for sale. Technology: Two Ideas to Move From Enduring It to Employing It. It’s a complaint we hear from both teachers and parents today: the kids are getting lost in technology.
Once they start a video game, they wander into another state of mind. Once they peer at their smart phone screen, they get lost gazing at the glow. Many educators question whether technology has made education more difficult. Maybe it’s the enemy. Maybe…but it doesn’t have to be. When it comes to technology, leaders/educators live in one of three camps: Endure it – They feel uncomfortable and wish it would go away.Enjoy it – They love new gadgets, but to them it’s all entertainment.Employ it – They not only embrace it, but use it to reach their goals.
Susanne Lajoie, from the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology lives in Camp #3. Lajoie is the Director of a newly funded “Learning Environments Across Disciplines” (LEADS) project in Canada. The Bottom Line for You and Me? Keep your eye on the big picture. A Secret Weapon for Employing Technology I can hardly wait.
How To Know If You're Correctly Integrating Technology. A common question that we hear from teachers about integrating technology into their classrooms is, “how do I know if I’m doing it right?” We love to hear this question because that tells us that the teacher is starting to analyze and evaluate how they are integrating technology and are looking for a way to gauge their effectiveness. We feel that the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) best addresses the question of “doing it right.” According to the Arizona K-12 Center at Northern Arizona University , “the TIM is designed to assist schools and districts in evaluating the level of technology integration in classrooms and to provide teachers with models of how technology can be integrated throughout instruction in meaningful ways.”
60 of the Best Websites and Apps for Teachers. Why Technology Truly Matters To Education. This is the kind of story that makes me love what I do. If I’m ever feeling like the work I do (integrating technology) is not important, I should just watch this video and read the story. This story dovetails nicely with this week’s story on how we’re about to see the end of teaching as we know it . Thanks to the Google Blog for shining a light on the story of Morgan, a 16-year-old student in Wells, Maine. Morgan has a learning disability but has been able to overcome much of the issues using technology such as Google Voice Search. While this is obviously an ad for Google’s products, it is an important look at the larger picture: technology enables learning like never before.
Here’s the key parts of the story from the Official Google Blog : We all have memories of the great teachers who shaped our childhood. One teacher who has taken advantage of the web as an educational tool is Cheryl Oakes, a resource room teacher in Wells, Maine. Technology 'hooks' students at Northwestern High. ROCK HILL — South Carolina is at risk of a water shortage.
With $500,000 in grants available for innovative conservation projects, it's up to the students in Bryan Coburn's introduction to engineering course at Northwestern High to devise solutions. Armed with smartphones and an array of Web tools, the teens spent much of last semester on that hypothetical assignment. By the project's end, they had created elaborate online portfolios showcasing their research, 3D designs and multimedia packages. Students said they never felt so enthralled by school work. Some were inspired to become engineers. "It was amazing," freshman Parker Hooten said. That's the kind of school experience that Coburn, the state's Teacher of the Year in 2009, and the founders of a national program want to replicate. Coburn is among a cadre of celebrated teachers rethinking how to prepare students to excel in an age of rapid innovation and global uncertainty.
The project is called "The Model Classroom. " An important role. Powerful new tools in educators' digital arsenal. The Technology Integration Answer...Well Almost. Earlier this year our district adopted the TPACK model of technology integration.
What is TPACK you ask? Basically, it takes the approach that planning for technology integration shouldn't be an event. It should be something that adds to what we are already doing. Through the use of Activity Types, teachers can take the activities they are already doing and match them up with appropiate technologies that may or may not work, depending on the context of learning. You can view this presentation to learn more. According to the feedback we have gotten from the folks who have embraced it has been overwhelmingly positive. Recently I came across something that you can also use to make technology integration easier for you and your staff.
There are actually 2 that you can take a look at.