A fellow teacher asked me this week what a classroom looked liked when it's fully integrated with technology. Then, before I could answer, she said, "Like yours - aren't your students on the computer all day?" That question brought me to a stop for a moment. Is that what people think is really happening in my classroom?
I love technology. Both for the fun it brings to my life and also for the doors it can open into areas of the world which I will never see any other way. Not coincidentally, I also love reading. And it is by comparing tech to reading that some teachers might see what makes a tech-integrated classroom.
Reading gets a lot of attention in schools and rightly so. Without it adults are the openers of the doors for children, but the ultimate goal is for the students to seek out and open their own passages. Reading enables the mastery of all other subjects, including math.
Teachers have many ways of teaching reading. Immersion, whole-language, phonics, sight words; and all are necessary because all people do not learn to their personal BEST in all the same manner. Much time is spent in the early grades making sure to reach each and every student, trying all tips and tricks in teachers' goody bags. The learning of reading goes on for many years, and sometimes never stops, as the acquisition of vocabulary is a never ending pursuit.
Now look at technology. It's a quirky little thing. It too can be used to promote reading skills in students. But it needs the partnership of reading to be used at its best. As reading abilities soar, so can technology use. Just like in reading, there are some things which need to be studied in isolation: sounds, letters, blends, etc… compare to: keyboarding, "click," menus, etc… A few basics in reading and technology and students have the world at their fingertips.
But are books used every minute of every day in a classroom? Of course not. Children are found all over the school coloring, cutting, moving around, using manipulatives, and discussing. And when books are used, it is always the same book? The same genre? The same topic? It's the same with technology, just substitute "tech" for "reading" in the paragraphs above.
In my class we have a techie's dream. We are 1-1, have an interactive whiteboard, projector, CPS units, doc cam, cameras, software, and apps. I'm sure there are a few things we could use, but we're pretty much covered. Believe it or not, there are pieces of tech we don't use every day. I know, a real shocker. And to make things more horrifying, we don't even use tech AT ALL some days. Why? Because sometimes we don't NEED to.
Despite accumulating massive amounts of tech in the class there are still some subjects which need a different method of teaching to best be mastered by the students. Shoving tech into a lesson just to say you used tech in the lesson is inappropriate. Tech should be used in order to best help the students learn, help them demonstrate mastery, and (in a distant third place) help present material to them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it with tech. You could actually hinder learning by making lessons too complex. Put the complexity into the content, not the format.
Technology is very engaging to all of our students and I know that most, if not all, job choices for them will involve tech to some end. Using no technology at all would be a true disservice to our children. You cannot justify never using tech just because that's the way you've always done it anymore than you can justify tossing in technology where it is not relevant. So, don't break the teaching, enhance it. Things do change and disruption happens.
I will continue using technology in my lessons to bring in relevance, heighten engagement, foster an ease for learning, and bring a sense of pride into finished products. I will also allow my students to make some of the choices on their learning by themselves, including adding or omitting the use of technology tools where that use is not an integral part of their understanding. My students will learn how to be fluent and flexible with the tools of learning. That my friends, is what a classroom looks like when it is integrated with technology.
I will continue using technology in my lessons to bring in relevance, heighten engagement, foster an ease for learning, and bring a sense of pride into finished products. I will also allow my students to make some of the choices on their learning by themselves, including adding or omitting the use of technology tools where that use is not an integral part of their understanding. My students will learn how to be fluent and flexible with the tools of learning. That my friends, is what a classroom looks like when it is integrated with technology.
Oh yeah, we'll also have a lot of fun.
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