Hi,
Wow that break went quick!! The holiday always seems so long at the beginning but all of a sudden your looking at your school bag thinking…”Do I really have to pick you up tomorrow??!” Anyway we move onto course 4 of COETAIL and I think the topic this week really allows me to reflect on how I have progressed with tech integration since I blogged about the SAMR model in Course 1.
flickr photo shared by mrkrndvs under a Creative Commons ( BY-SA ) license
In order to begin my reflecting I looked at some of the Edutopia articles suggested in the readings for this week. I began with Why Integrate? which I think is an important question to constantly ask ourselves throughout our careers. I think the mood in teaching has finally shifted where the answrs to these questions are clear especially with our responsibilty to prepare children for the 21st century and I particularly liked this phrase for any doubters out there
The Web connects students to experts in the real world and provides numerous opportunities for expressing understanding through images, sound, and text
Giving children an opportunity to express themselves and their understanding is so important especially when looking at children who struggle to show their understanding through traditional means. If we can present them with opportunities to express their learning using technology like using a vocie to text programme to help them write or Kidblog or SeeSaw to create a portfolio of their work then we must do this.
While reflecting on my use of technology in the classroom this year I have found using the SAMR model is the best way for me to do it. I enjoy Jeff’s presenting of it which I stumbled upon when doing a flickr search for pictures to go with this blog and has now changed how I am thinking about my tech integration (the joys of the internet!!)
flickr photo shared by jutecht under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license
Jeff says that:
To often the SAMR model is seen as a linar set of “steps” one goes through. However it really is more of a never ending circle. When one finally is able to redefine teaching with new technologies they start over at dabbling with the next possible tool. Where are you on the circle and where are you headed?
I think the addition of a “dabbling stage” as well as showing it as a circle summarises my thinking of how the SAMR model should be viewed and also how you can be at that different stages depending on the apps of programmes that you are using. In my classroom for example, I have been using Edmodo since the beginning of the year and have made some great progress with the children where i can now consider the majority to be on the Modification stage using this app and some on the redefinition stage. However when I look at an app like SeeSaw which I have only begun to introduce, the majority of us (including myself) are still at the dabbling stage. I also like this way of looking at the model as I think it gives reluctant teachers more confidence to take that first step and “dabble” in something new.
flickr photo shared by baejaar under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license
When evaluating tech use in my classroom Jeff’s article really helped along with this Edutopia article. I feel I have made a lot of progress this year but still have a long journey ahead of me. I think on a day to day basis I am usually ticking the box for question 2 of Jeff’s evaluation and sometimes for question 3. I am still struggling to reach stage 4- doing new things, new ways. I have achieved this through one or two project based lessons this year but have not got to this level consistently enough. Some of the obstacles I have encountered is time which is a constant complaint for teachers. My year group have an end of Key Stage exam coming up one week after the holidays so the weeks before the holidays have been filled with revision, revision, revision which have restricted my time to explore new avenues with the class. In looking at Mary Beth Hertz’s article I would say that my class is at the “comfortable” stage. This is a great improvement from the beginning of the year and is also the best level of integration I have reached in my teaching career so I am proud of that. However, always want ot move to the next step so I am hoping that with the pressure of the exams over with I will have more time to integrate technology and move onto the seamless levels.
flickr photo shared by eatmorechips under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-ND ) license
Another of the main boundaries to successful tech integration is resources (again a problem I am sure everyone is familiar with). Our school has a BYOD policy which has proved more difficult then I thought. There is no requirement for the children to bring their own device and some children don’t have devices or their parents do not wish for them to come to school. This means in my class the number of devices I may have for a lesson is very inconsistent which may makes it difficult to plan for. There is also compatibility issues across different devices as well which doesn’t make things any easier. I found these two Edutopia articles have given me some good ideas to improve my tech integration and move towards Step 4 or “seamless” integration more frequently. I am also hoping that Course 4 will present me with some new ideas to “dabble” with that will help my class (and me!!) progress with our tech integration!
Cheers
Paul