Strategic Technology Integration
I am taking a MOOC (again) about technology integration (2015). These are my notes.
Strategic Technology Integration
STEP 1: EVALUATE AND ASSESS
- Find Inspiration and Evidence of Tool Effectiveness
- Use your intuition. Ask yourself: "Does this tool allow me to do something in my teaching practice that I can't do without it?"
- Poll your personal learning network
- Ask a colleague to sit in on a lesson
- Search the web for research-based evidence
- Take a free online graduate course at Tarleton State ;-)
- Assess Your Own Understanding, Skill, and Confidence Level with the Tool
- Do you truly understand the functional purpose(s) of the tool and its general capabilities?
- Assess Your Students' Understanding, Skill, and Confidence Level with the Tool
- Do your students truly understand the functional purpose(s) of the tool and its general capabilities?
- Assess Your Resources and Time Needs
- Do you and your students have access to the hardware, software, bandwidth, and technical support that is required?
- Try to forecast the amount of time it will take you to learn to use the tool from both the teacher and the student perspective.
- Try to forecast the amount of time it will take you to test run and troubleshoot problems with the tool.
- Try to forecast the amount of time it will take you to scaffold your students' use of the tool.
STEP 2: LEARN AND PLAN
- Invest dedicated time and energy into learning the tool (ideally from the student perspective first
!).
- Seek out training (professional development, online, from a colleague, or even from your own students).
- Seek out opportunities to talk about and show others what you're learning.
- What does success look like in your mind's eye?
- Try to imagine how your class looks (organized chaos?), sounds (quiet, focused chatter?), and feels (energy in the air?) when learning is occurring using a technology tool. Try to work backwards from that point to determine how you reach that state of success.
- What learning objectives can you accomplish with the aid of the tool?
- What pedagogical strategies will you call upon?
- What learning strategies will you call upon?
- How will you scaffold your students' use of the tool?
- Try to view things through the lens of the students. How will you provide them with instructions?
- What might be hard for them to conceptualize or manage?
- Where might students get off track?
- How much 'experimenting' will you allow students to have with a tool?
- What is your timeline for implementation?
- This timeline should include the remaining steps 3-6.
- Always overestimate the amount of time you think tasks will take by 1-2 hours. ;-)
- What is your backup plan?
- As you probably already know, technology misbehaves. Work with your support network to brainstorm workarounds for when the technology doesn't act the way you want it to.
STEP 3: COORDINATE
- Schedule dedicated time with support staff, colleagues, and even your own students to accomplish the goals you set in Step 2.
- Test-run your use of the tool alone first, and try to forecast areas where things could go wrong. Develop a scaffolding
strategy based on this.
- Schedule time for support staff to assist you with a test run and for the "prime time" roll-out.
STEP 4: TEST
- Test run your scaffolding
on a test audience (your colleagues, your friends, your family - anyone who will agree to it!)
STEP 5: IMPLEMENT
- Use the tool for the first time!
STEP 6: RE-EVALUATE and RE-ASSESS
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the tool in your context.
- Did it facilitate learning?
- Did it streamline a task?
- Did it engage learners?
- Did it engage you?
- Assess your own attitudes, understanding, confidence, and skill level.
- Was it worth the time and energy you spent?
- Will it get easier the more you use it?
