I'm looking forward to what the spring semester has in store. I think many new, great innovations are in store for us. There should be some great building upon the foundations that were laid in the fall semester.
With that, I'll do a little review of the SAMR model that we are integrating.
The SAMR model was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura and much can be found about this model on his blog: http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/. This is something that I have shared with my teachers and something that I want them to strive for in their lessons. I delivered the SAMR model in a series of workshops with the teachers.
In a nutshell, SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, and can be seen by this representation here:
First, we discussed how technology could be substituted for what we already do, and whether or not it is advantageous to use the technology if it is just a simple substitution for what we are already doing. The consensus from our discussion was that unless the technology was enhancing the learning experience even by just substituting, then it is worth the time and effort to do, but if not, continue on as usual.
Next, we ventured into augmentation, and I asked the teachers to think about any ways that they were currently augmenting a lesson plan using technology. There were a few good ones. One of my science teachers had the students using Google Chrome books and going to the University of Cincinnati's website: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio105/geneprob.htm to practice genetic crossing problems. We felt that this was more than just substitution because all the students were able to practice problems that were not otherwise available to them and they could collaborate on the harder problems. It also allowed the teacher to more freely roam about the classroom and see how students were doing.
Getting into modification, the transformation level of SAMR, seemed to be a bit harder for the discussion to crack open. However, once we did, the ideas started flowing. One of the better ideas came from one of my English teachers. He has an assignment that he has three classes all complete (3 different sections of the same class). We talked about ways to not only use technology, but use it to the fullest advantage. We figured out that for this assignment, students could create a Google Document instead of hand writing it out on paper. Once created, students from all the sections of the class could make comments on or edit the document, and everyone can see the results. In this way, using technology will allow the students from different class periods to collaborate and communicate on the same assignment, at different times. This would not have been possible without technology! We would have had to have all the students in the same room, at the same time, and all have copies of the document and present their ideas one by one for everyone to see. Not only does technology provide a great medium for this lesson to happen, but it makes it much easier for the teacher and students to see the results.
Redefinition, this was indeed the hardest, because I wanted the teachers to know that this is simply not using the technology for creation of new things formerly that would have been impossible without it. It is doing something previously inconceivable, and I wanted them to think of this more as an innovation, rather than technology integration. The example that I gave: for AP stats classes, how cool would it be for the classes to use technology to gather information and statistics about something affecting the community, and then create a report (using technology like in the modification example, so students can see what each other is writing) that they could submit to a local alder person or city council member? This would allow the students to use statistics to back up any claims that they are making regarding an issue, submit a report to local government, and then hopefully hear back from that local government official. The students have just applied their knowledge of statistics to a real world situation, something that takes learning to a whole new level.
So all in all, I wanted the teachers to realize that SAMR is not simply integrating technology, but using the technology to help achieve new innovations in the classroom to foster even more engagement and active learning that was previously inconceivable!
No comments:
Post a Comment