Methods+and+Strategies

=Methods and Strategies =

This section discuses methods and strategies for integrating technology into instruction from the point of view of the practitioner. 
 * I ** spent the first half of my teaching career not using any kind of technology in my teaching. I have been teaching since 1997. When I started there were no computers in my 4th grade classroom. When I moved to public school 3 years later, there were a few very old, broken, and barely working laptops in the back of my classroom. As the years went by, I became a better teacher, but still didn’t use it much. Started using it more for planning purposes - see what others were doing, get ideas to use in my classroom. The sad little laptops in the back were gathering dust. Every once in awhile, the students would use them if they finished their work early, on a snow day or on a Friday afternoon. The students went to the computer lab once a week and worked with the computer teacher on projects she created. Even as I started using technology more in my personal life, mostly for email and shopping, I never even thought about using it in my teaching. Why would I? I was getting better and better at teaching what I wanted to teach, I had innumerable books, maps, and other resources.

But then I started to hear about sites such as AskEric that had ideas, lesson plans, and other resources for teachers. Slowly, I started looking for resources and ideas on the internet. For a while, it was a laborious task. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about using computers and it took forever to find some helpful materials. I was becoming impressed with the internet, however. Particularly, for its ability to provide my students with many more resources than they could get from books. I started working with the computer teacher to have her show the students how to research topics we were working on and creating final documents and later, presentations. My involvement in the process was the planning of the project and sitting with the computer teacher to let her know what I wanted the students to do and discussing possible final presentation ideas. It never occurred to me that my students should be using computers regularly outside the lab.

Four years ago my principal requested that I take a position he wanted to create, “Social Studies Through Technology.” His goal was for the students to begin learning how to use technology every day in all areas and not just in “Computer Class.” This was a large undertaking for me and I was quite overwhelmed and felt very anxious in the beginning. Now, although I still don’t think of myself as a “techie”, I am in charge of mostly everything having to do with technology including trouble shooting, professional development, and purchasing decisions. So where did I start?

1. Administrator Expectations/School Goals - What is the mission of your school? What are the main goals of the school? Every school has a mission statement reflecting what is important to that particular school. To meet the mission, administrators usually create goals, objectives, and strategies. For example, in my school, our mission statement is:

"... to enable all of our children to become lifelong, independent learners who are active in their own education, growth and development and, who are engaged and challenged to become critical thinkers who can work both individually and cooperatively as problem solvers. In light of this, all staff will concentrate their efforts on the established best pedagogical practices, and the proven developments in brain research, in order to ensure that they become embedded in our daily interaction with our children thereby enabling all of them to become stakeholders in their own educational development."

One of our goals to meet this mission is:

We will strengthen student work in grades K-8 by implementing more rigorous tasks in the area of ELA as defined by the requirements of the CCLS (i.e. Common Core Learning Standards). With this goal, we expect to increase the number of students who achieve at least one year of progress by 3% as measured by our Data Management System In-House Final Exam.

How does technology promote our mission and goals? A lifelong learner is someone who is not tied down to one location to learn. They learn wherever they are from many different resources. They do not stop learning just because they have left school. In order to do this, the students need technology. Using technology in a setting that is student-centered and where the teacher is more of a facilitator fosters this mission. Technology allows for engaging and challenging problem solving that is preparing the students for the global digital world.

To see a short video how two different school districts determined the type of technology that would aid what their specific goals were, see:

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Are there clearly defined expectations for technology? A recurring scenario is played out far too often when the latest technology is purchased for no specific reason. Everyone knows of, or worse, has witnessed the dusty boxes of unopened technology equipment in the corner of the gymnasium. Or the Smart Board that has become a hanger for the teacher’s coat. Administrators may get very excited to get a “deal” on a set of iPads. But what is the purpose of purchasing these items? Who will use them? What will they be used for? Is there training or technical assistance available for the people who are expected to use it?

Expectations for assistive technology? Assistive technology enables students with all different types of disabilities including learning disabilities emotional disabilities and physical impairments. These technologies are designed to allow students to use their strengths to work around their disabilities. Administrators’ attitudes to the importance and what technology is needed for the school’s students is very important. In addition, the knowledge and skills of special education teachers in the use of assistive technology is important to its successful use.

Is there a technology plan? see - PBS [|PBS Tech Plan]

media type="youtube" key="aG47e4CSwoQ" height="315" width="560" To realize the benefits of technology in this 21st century world, schools should develop a technology plan for integrating technology into the curriculum. Effective technology plans include not only the administrators’ viewpoint, but that of the educators, parents, business leaders and other local community members. What does the CEP provide regarding technology? What are the administrators’ technology skills? The principal is one of the key facilitators in the integration of technology into the building. If administrators do not fully understand how to use technology for educational purposes, they may spend money on unnecessary equipment or will not provide necessary supplies. The administrators attitudes toward the use of technology is the classroom is very important. If administrators stress the use of technology in their classrooms, many teachers will respond. Do the teachers have a say in the plan? Teacher input is very important as they are the people who will use the technology and know the needs of their individual students.

2. School Infrastructure/Equipment - What is your school’s internet capability? Is bandwidth being updated? How do you make sure that it is on a list for update, if needed? Is the electrical system satisfactory for the technology that the school has or is considering? Will the circuits blow everytime a laptop cart is plugged into an outlet? Does the school have an elevator? Portable equipment such as SmartBoards and laptop carts are good ways of providing technology equipment to a number of classrooms. But can portable equipment actually be transported around the school? Is there an updated list of available hardware (not DOE inventory - but ongoing, updated list)? Who is responsible for keeping the list updated? How does the school keep all of the equipment up-to-date? This particular issue is one facing my school right now. We have almost 700 laptops in the building. Laptop batteries, projector bulbs and printer toner are expensive. Are there resources for updates and accessories such as school funds, pta/parent involvement, Reso A and other grants from local politicians. Every year my school invites our local politicians to shows/performances that regularly have a large turnout of voters (parents) for a photo op to present the BIG check. Funny enough, most of them show up with the life-sized check that you see in those sweepstakes commercials. It also helps to reach out to local businesses in the community for supplies and other grants. It is amazing how supportive some of the neighborhood businesses are to the local schools.

3. Teachers - When all is said and done, the successful use of technology is going to boil down to one of the most important factors: the teacher. Having the most up-to-date equipment and dynamic technology plans will not mean much without a properly trained teacher actually using the technology inside the classroom. In addition, the teachers need to be familiar with the administrator's expectations? Do teachers have a say in technology plan? Are they skilled in the use of the technology that they are expected to use for preparing and delivering instruction? Being comfortable with technology is an issue I see often in my school. I'm lucky enough to teach in a wonderful school with a supportive administration. We have little to no turnover. Therefore, many of the staff is older and of a generation that did not grow up with computers. On the other hand, many of our students are tech savvy. When I work with many of the teachers, they share their fear of looking incompetent in front of their students if they do something wrong. To try to get them over their apprehension, I spend as much time as possible with the teacher in his/her free time. Technology Lunches are becoming frequent occurrences with me. I also have the teacher schedule their first use of a new technology when I'm available to be there. Most times I just sit in the back with the students, but I think having me there in case something goes wrong makes them braver. I also always try to remind teachers to let the students help them. There is nothing wrong with learning from your students. In fact, I've picked up some of my best tips from them. Another myth that needs to be dispelled with many teachers is that using technology takes a lot of time. True, like anything new, there is a learning curve that requires some time. But it is nothing as long as some teachers believe. When I talk to the teachers in my school about integrating technology, the usual answer is, "I don't have the time. We have to get ready for the tests. Can we do this in Jun when we don't have anything else to do?" Unfortunately, this all too repeated question gives a glimpse into how many of the teachers view technology. To many of them, it is something for Fun Friday or as a reward to play games when something is completed quickly or well. For technology integration to succeed, teachers need to realize the power they have by using it. Why should they use it? See [|Video] - how a teacher in Los Altos uses technology to reach her struggling students:

media type="youtube" key="3C_MyjqfiQ8" height="315" width="560" Are there ongoing professional development opportunities to use and integrate technology? Most school districts have technology departments that provide teacher training and resouces. For example, in Queens, NY the OIT conducts monthly meetings, teacher professional development, etc. See their wikispaces at I OIT Queens Wikispaces Integrating technology is using it in a seamless manner to support the curriculum. This does not occur from a one day professional development. rather, it is an ongoing process where teachers not only adopt new tools, but where they change they way they teach. This requires time and training. Sufficient technology support? Do teachers use technology to “support” their teaching? For example, do they use word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software to keep grade books and create visual lessons? Do they search the internet for resources for their teaching? If not - help them: Start slow. Find out what teachers are teaching. Meet with them during common planning if possible. What are they teaching? What do they want the students to get out of it? Demonstrate one program that is age appropriate, paint programs, slideshows, and blogs are a great place to start. Know What You Want to Teach: Technology should never change what you are teaching, but rather should be a tool to make the teaching more engaging or differentiated. Now with the Common Core standards, technology is supposed to be integrated into many content areas. Under the Common Core, students are to be doing much more rigorous work. See video [|The Common Core] The standards to be taught are lower in number, but are supposed to be explored more in depth. Technology integration is seen throughout the Common Core. Students are expected to use various types of technology tools and multimedia resources to research and create. Another buzz word of the moment is Flipped Learning. Basically, students prepare BEFORE class with videos, podcasts,etc.to become familiar with a topic. They then post questions onto a social media site. These questions are reviewed by the teacher who then plans lesson based on what was asked and understood and what was not asked. This type of learning, among other things, gives teachers greater latitude in going deeper into topics because the basic introductory work is done by the students outside of class. For this to be successful, students need not only access to technology hardware and software, but also need a good sense of web literacy beyond “googling.” To read more about web literacy and Flipped Learning, read this recent article by Alan November and BRian Mull entitled, [|“Why More Schools Aren’t Teaching Web Literacy - and How They Can Start.”] - Once you know what you want the learner to know - where will technology add to building knowledge or engagement.

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4. Students - Technology brings 21st century skills to the classroom and trains students to be competitive in a global market. With technology, students learn: Responsibilities, both personal and social Strong Communication skills Ability to work Collaboratively Decision Making Becoming tech savvy and being able to know what tool is most appropriate for a task Planning, Creativity, Critical thinking, Do the students regularly use and have access to, technology in al content areas? Unfortunately in many schools, students go to the "lab" once or twice a week and then rarely use any kind of technology outside of the lab. Is there adequate assistive technology to meet student needs? Is there a management system for student use and care of technology? Acceptable use policies? Here in New York City, the Department of Education has a form Acceptable Use policy that should be signed by each student. I also have the parents sign it so that they are aware of what their children's rights and responsibilities related to technology use. Like everything else in education, if you are using technology, you need to assess whether it is providing the students what it should. Some questions to think about when you are thinking about assessment of technology proficiency are:

• How will I know students have learned in content AND technology? • What outcomes do I expect from using the new methods? • What are the best ways of assessing these outcomes? • Various methods: rubrics, checklists Finally, don't forget that many of your students use technology every day outside of school. Are you accessing your students tech savvy properly? Geek squad for basic tech problems and interacting with your students regularly to find out what they are using in the “real” world. See [|Article and Video] about district where students teach their teachers how to use technology.

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