Hello WSFCS. My name is Marty Creech and I have been given the opportunity to guest blog on the InTouch blog. Thanks to the WSFCS DIT for allowing me to share my perspective on what technology integration looks like in the classroom and in schools. I currently teach 6th grade science and social studies.
(Photo by Intul using Wikimedia Commons License)
The old adage of a picture being worth a million words could never be truer in the case of technology integration in the classroom. As you read through this entry notice the pictures of the technologies being used in schools around the world. (photo by Carla of OPLC using Wikmedia Commons license)
In an attempt to promote technology integration, my school district installed a SmartBoard in every classroom. Did it provide publicity and initiate the rhetoric of technology integration in our county? Yes. Were teachers excited about this new technology? Yes. Was this the best technology investment for each classroom? Maybe. See, when we discuss what technology in the classroom looks like there is no one size fits all technologies out there. The K-12 curriculum spans from learning the alphabet to advanced Calculus and so on. The teacher in each of these classrooms would give you a completely different answer on technologies that were needed in their classrooms. The curriculum and student needs should drive what technologies are used in each classroom.When I first set out on my journey of incorporating technology I wanted anything and everything. My kids were exposed to podcasts, wikis, blogs, Skype, Quest Atlantis, webquests, and many interactive games. My students were learning a lot of different technologies. They were learning many different skills that will indeed help them in their future. I was doing all these things with no regard to the curriculum I was hired to teach. Technology guided my curriculum. My practice was wrong. I was wrong. With this realization of my mistakes and their acceptance, I could now grow as a professional.
(photo by Lft using Wikimedia Commons License)
(photo by: Terrance T.S. Tam through Creative Commons License)
I could continue to list off technology after technology but true technology integration is having teachers that are 1) knowledgeable about the technologies available and 2) have the confidence to give them a try. If each teacher in a school possessed these two skills then technology would be integrated innately and with purpose. These skills don’t come easy. It should be a goal of administrators and central office staff to groom teachers to the possibilities of technology integration.
Then when asked to describe technology integration in a school of 30 classrooms it would take 30 million words. Personally, I prefer the pictures.
0 comments:
Post a Comment