Technology is changing at an astonishing rate, both in the technology
available, and in the accessibility that students and schools have to technology. This has produced an environment in which
teachers are somewhat lost about how to incorporate these motivating, engaging,
and relevant technologies into their current pedagogies and practices. I recently participated in a year-long
professional development program through my school district that provided
additional classroom technology and professional development to learn how to
use it effectively. I feel as though my
experiences in this program opened my eyes to the different ways that
technology can and should be used to enhance student learning.
One of the focuses of this professional development experience was
creating experiences we referred to as “Tier 3” experiences, following the
model of Educational Technology Standards put out by Washington State Office of
the Superintendent (OSPI,
2013). In Tier 3, the goal is to
have technology be used by students to create and collaborate. We were encouraged to move beyond having
students use computers for simple word-processing, and instead have students do
collaborative projects using GoogleDrive or some other collaborative Web-based
application.
These technology advances, such as iPads, GoogleDrive, blogs, and
more, have created an array of tools that allow for a different kind of
learning than was ever possible before.
I had my students do a group project using GooglePresentation, which I
had originally planned to do as an entirely in-class activity (an attempt to
limit homework for students), but was very pleased to discover that my students
were eager and anxious to work on the project at home and collaborate with each
other. I also have the ability to
collaborate with my coworkers in a way that was not possible before through
websites, Evernote, and more. The current
and evolving technologies have allowed student learning and teacher collaboration
to go places never before imagined.
Resources:
Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. (2013).Tiers
of technology integration into the classroom indicators. Retrieved from
http://www.k12.wa.us/EdTech/TechLiteracy/TechIntTiers.aspx
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