Graduate Education Assistance

Response to discussion 1: Troy wrote: Sometimes teachers bring technology into the classroom because they feel like they need to add something to the lesson but in reality, the technology does nothing to enhance the lesson. I know I have been guilty of this in the past. Implementing technology is about knowing your students and picking the correct strategy to impact a lesson (Terada, 2020). Choosing what technology to use can transform a lesson to connect with your students. The SAMR wheel model provides a blueprint to decide how technology could be implemented in a lesson to motivate students, develop critical-thinking skills, and meet learning objectives (Carrington, 2020). When a teacher finds a technology or app they can use the SAMR model to decide if the technology will substitute, augment, modify, or redefine material. This model guides instructional planning with data to back a teacher's decision to use a certain technology. It guides a teacher to step back and think about what they want to accomplish with the technology and if it will benefit the lesson. 

Response to discussion 1: Stefanie wrote:

Technology in the classroom may lead to a quiet room of students intently concentrating on their assigned tasks, but that does not necessarily mean they are engaged (Schwartz, 2016). Engagement is the combination of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional pieces and a student being on-task is only one piece of the puzzle, just because a student follows directions and is well behaved, they could still be miserable (Schwartz, 2016). Looking at the neuroscience of learning, emotion drives cognition (Schwartz, 2016). When a student does not really care about what they are learning and they can not see where it applies to their life, they will not make the connections needed to really learn the material. Activities that engage students allow them to personalize their responses, give clear and modeled expectations, they can see audience is above and beyond the teacher and tests, contains social interaction, there is a culture of emotional safety and mistakes are treated as an opportunity to learn, students have choice within the activity, the activity is authentic, and students are not board with the task (Schwartz, 2016).

Using technology without an effective implementation, failing to take into consideration the needs of the learner, does nothing to help them with the learning process (Wilson, 2017). If a one-on-one laptop program is implemented correctly, it is worth the cost and effort involved because it should increase student achievement and enhance the enthusiasm and engagement of the students, but if the program does not take into account the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional pieces of the engagement puzzle, then a school is implementing technology just to implement it and the student misses out on true learning.

The SAMR model is a framework that was created by Dr. Ruben Puentedra and allows for categorization of the four different types of integration of technology into the classroom (SAMR Model: A Practical Guide for K-12 Classroom Technology Integration, 2021). The enhancement levels of S and A describe substitution as using technology as a direct substitute, with no functional change and augmentation as using technology as a direct substitution and there is functional improvement (SAMR Model: A Practical Guide for K-12 Classroom Technology Integration, 2021). The transformation level includes modification, where technology allows for a significant redesign of a task and redefinition, where technology allows for new tasks to be created that were previously inconceivable (SAMR Model: A Practical Guide for K-12 Classroom Technology Integration, 2021).

Unless technology gives functional improvement to a lesson or allows for new tasks to be created, then technology is being implemented because it is the “in thing” to do. Yes, everyone walks around with their head in their phones, most work is done on laptops or personal computers, and it is thought that technology has solved so many problems. We also have people that have bad posture because they have lost the natural curvature in their necks because they are always looking down, we have people that do not know how to interact with each other because people are way more bold to type hateful words on the safety of their keyboards then they would ever say to a person standing in front of them and there is a greater need now for social connection then ever before. There are pieces of technology that allow use to collect data and give quizzes in a fun way, but is it necessary? Does the use of technology automatically mean engagement because a student is answering the question? Technology should not be used as a crutch, but as an enhancement to further the learning and engagement of students and help them to find that love of learning where they want to go out and use technology to further the lesson, to answer questions on their own, and develop additional questions because they dug into the information further.

Response to discussion question 2: Jill wrote : After reflecting upon the SAMR wheel as it relates to technology use in the classroom, I believe that numerous day-to-day tasks could be categorized as “substitution” and “modification”. Apps and digital tools such as Google Docs, digital learning platforms, search engines and YouTube videos digitize tasks with very little input or analysis on the student’s part. By incorporating technological tools that foster student creation, analysis of data, critical thought and discussion, technology heightens the extent of learning according to Bloom’s Taxonomy from “understanding and applying” to “analyzing, evaluating and creating”(“SAMR and Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy”, 2013). Purposeful planning and instructional design is required to ensure the purposeful use of technology by the student.