0 A colleague asked .....

A colleague asked me to answer the following questions for one of her graduate assignments. I am curious on your thoughts on either of the following:

• If technology were removed, what learning would be impossible/impaired?
• How do you support professional development?
• What is the best “advice” you would give for moving technology/learning forward in a way that will make more impact for all students

My thoughts are: 

If technology were removed, what learning would be impossible/impaired?

If technology were removed, I believe, it would hinder our learners to neither advance beyond knowledge and comprehensive learning nor facilitate student driven learning experiences needed to assist our student to thrive in today’s world. The utilization of technology fosters collaboration among students promoting an engaged-learning environment, which I believe, enhances critical/higher level thinking skills.

How do you support professional development?

Our technology department supports professional development in many ways to assist in meeting the needs of our staff. Our technology professional developments concentrate on increasing student achievement utilizing backwards planning to recognize the desired student’s behavior.  Additionally our professional developments are centering around the 21^st Century learning skills which encompass the 4C’s: Creativity, Communication. Collaboration and Critical Thinking,

What is the best “advice” you would give for moving technology/learning forward in a way that will make more impact for all students.

The best advice I can provide is to consider the SAMR technology integration model - developed by Dr, Rubin Puentadura.  When integrating technology consider centering the lesson around the following questions:

• What do I want my students to learn?
• What are the student behaviors? 

The SAMR model is a useful tool to assist teachers to gradually shift to transitioning from below the line to above the line of technology integration. I highly recommend you viewing the following post by Carl Hooker, Director of Instructional Technology in Eanes ISD. He approaches the SAMR model to the analogy of a pool (“Taking a Dip in the SAMR Swimming Pool”) compared to the ladder approach. His explanation of the “SAMR Swimming Pool” provides a straightforward explanation of the SAMR model.

What are your thoughts?