Technology integration has different interpretations. Edutopia defines it as :
"Technology integration is the use of technology resources -- computers, digital cameras, CD-ROMs, software applications, the Internet, etc. -- in daily classroom practices, and in the management of a school. Technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent. Technology integration is achieved when a child or a teacher doesn't stop to think that he or she is using a computer or researching via the Internet."
http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-module-technology-integration-what
What is your definition of technology integration in the classroom? Why?
Technology integration is the use of technology tools to enhance learning in the classroom. Today's classrooms have several technology tools readily accessible to students. Some examples of tools used in the classroomare interactive whiteboards, student response systems(handheld control units), digital cameras, virtual field trips, webquests,etc. Integrating technology allows for more advance learning and empowers students with a wealth of knowledge. "Constructivism is a critical component of technology integration. It is a learning theory that describe the process of students constructing their own knowledge through collaboration and inquiry based learning."
ReplyDeleteTechnology integration is about teachers and students consistently using technology to its full potential. I know that my first year of teaching, I only had rudimentary understanding of how to fully incorporate the SmartBoard and projector into my lessons. It took me quite sometime to move from being the primary user of technology to having students be the primary users. I believe that true integration is when the teacher uses technology to inspire students to create and subsequently utilize the technology tools at a deeper level.
ReplyDeleteTechnology
ReplyDeleteElva--- I'm curious about the use of virtual field trips. Have you had success with them before? I've used google maps and other imaging resources to show students different landforms, but I haven't gone past that. Do you have any suggestions for resources?
ReplyDeleteTechnology integration is when students use different types of technology to learn the content areas they need. Students are used to using textbooks and manipulatives, but they enjoy using technology any chance they get. Students learn technology faster and easier than adults, and their attention span is longer when technology is involved. I was amazed when I came back into the classroom and saw that people could actually touch a board and it would change because back then when I was in school all we had was a chalkboard and chalk. Even before learning about the smartboard I had one in my classroom and used it the best I could. The students loved being exposed to it and enjoyed the big screen and getting up and interacting with the smartboard.
ReplyDeleteTechnology has become an important part of our lives as teachers inside the classroom and outside the classroom. Technology is the use of integration of meaningful tools into the classrooms, which help you show student learn new information and also helps students and teacher better communicated. The integration of technology allows for authentic learning to happen in the classroom rather than by just lecturing from a book to the students. “To become facilitators and instructors in online learning environments we must become more familiar to the needs of our students and that is drastically changing moment by moment as technology constantly changes. We must understand our students at a much level then perhaps ever before.” Palloff & Pratt (2003, p.124)
ReplyDeletePalloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student. A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
M.Izquierdo
To Eva Mendoza:
ReplyDeleteI Agree with you that the use of technology now is use to enhance learning in all areas of learning in the classroom. Not only that, in today's classrooms we have the privilege to have several technology tools such the smart boards, projectors etc. that we can use in our classrooms.
M.IZQUIERDO
To: Michelle
ReplyDeleteI like what you said that students are used to using textbooks and manipulative all the time, but as teachers it is our job to help our students learn with technology. Students will enjoy it better and will be able to retain the information better.
M. IZQUIERDO
I agree that technology often acts as a "hook" to engage students in learning. However, I worry that we might eventually put too much emphasis on virtual education and forget the importance of experiencing the real thing. As a science teacher, I often have the choice of a virtual lab, but I only utilize it if I cannot obtain the materials for a hands on lab. Technology needs to be balanced in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteMaria, your right the classroom is better off with technology. Technology is rapidly and students need to be up to date.
ReplyDeleteKate, that is very true because I had the technology in my classroom but that is why I wanted to be in the MTT program to better understand technology and incorporate it in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI believe technology integration is utilizing all the technology that you have around to engage and teach children in a manner that comes natural to them. Now a days technology is like one of our limbs, an extension of our teaching that becomes more and more important as time changes. Now we can observe children better utilizing a touch screen then a pencil, so our question should be, can we teach with out technology integration?
ReplyDeleteTo: Kate
ReplyDeleteYou are totally right sometimes we learn as we go and even though it is hard to figure it out you will never forget what you just learned.
To:Michelle
ReplyDeleteChildren do learn to use technology faster and that is because on the era we are one, but some times we do tend to forget to use it because of the way in which we were taught.
Kate, I have to agree with you. When I started teaching 22 years ago there was nothing about technology in my classroom. It consisted mainly of bookshelves and a chalkboard. Four years ago I started teaching in Donna my classroom was equipped with a smartboard. I had never seen one, much less used one. My students were my resource. They taught me everything I know. I want to get away from being the primary user. Any ideas how I can get there.
ReplyDeleteTechnology integration is the use of technology resources in collaboration with curriculum. The technology must be engaging, emerging, and effective in order to keep students from tuning out a lesson.
ReplyDeleteEffective integration is when a lesson is carried out with the use of technology resources as an everyday practice. "Students are more actively engaged in projects when technology integration is a seamless part of the learning process" ("What is Technology Integration", n.d., para 2).Technology integration will become the paper and pencil of the future. Students will be required to use higher-order thinking to complete tasks and therefore become responsible for their own learning.
What is Technology Integration. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-module-technology-integration-what
Claudia,
ReplyDeleteThe main reason I decided to join the MTT program is when I began to realize that students were learning in a very different way. Todays, students are exposed to technology everyday. I know that I need to start learning and appreciating technology or I will be left behind
Kate! binns, I agree that teachers should integrate technology to inspire students and help them tap into their higher-order thinking. I think a great way to attract students and grasp their attention is through gaming, which they seem to know a lot about already!
ReplyDeleteElva, I also think there are more technology resources now available for students. I think the question now is, how do we make sure all teachers know how to use the technology effectively? I am pretty clueless in the technology department which is why I decided to go through the MTT program.
ReplyDeleteC. Perez, I also think that technology will become the paper and pencil of the future. We see it everyday even within our own families. Email and text messages have become the basic types of communication. It sometimes replaces the face to face communication within our household.
ReplyDeleteKate, I like your comment on true integration, I hope that through this program I can learn to integrate it into my lessons and in turn teach my student to truly integrate technolgy as a tool for creating and showing their knowledge across all subjects.
ReplyDeleteI believe that technology integration occurs when both student and teacher are familiar with tech tools and work as a team to access and use information from various media sources. In reality, many of our students are already fluent in technology, and it's our duty as teachers to learn their tech language, skills and culture if we want to reach and teach them. Teachers need to step out of their comfort zones and learn to use the new tools with which young people are already comfortable. When techology is effectively integrated in the classroom, it will result in an increase in student interest and motivation...which can only be a positive effect.
ReplyDeleteTo Michelle, I totally agree with your viewpoint. Twelve, fifteen years ago, I thought using a CD player in my classroom was "technology". Nowadays, this generation of young people, "Generation Y", are so immersed in technology, we really need to play catch up with them, if we want to reach them.
ReplyDeleteTo Letty...it's true that texting and e-mails have almost virtually replaced handwritten notes and phone calls. But I also think that face-to-face communication can be enhanced with the use of video conferencing, smart phone cameras, and Skype. And at some point, you'll always have to talk face-to-face with an IT person when they come to fix your computer!
ReplyDeleteIntegration of technology in the classroom is equivalent to teachers assigning a task to the students via a wiki(or any other interactive tool) and students creating and completing the task without even thinking through the use of some kind of digital media, (podcast, photo-story, etc,,,). When this can be done in a seamless manner, we would have accomplished integration of technology into the classrooms.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSecond part:
ReplyDeleteAs far fetched as it now seems, this quote from the abstract of a paper (Kaplan and Iaoboni, 2007) regarding measurable effects on the brains of subjects exposed to visual and sound cues suggest that eventually educators will be able to draw on objective data showing the effectiveness of using various technological media with particular students, groups of students, or students with particular learning styles.
"Subjects saw a video of paper tearing in silence (V), heard the sound of paper tearing (A), and saw and heard the action simultaneously (A + V). Compared to a non-action control stimulus, we found that hearing action sounds (A) activated the anterior inferior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus in addition to primary auditory cortex. The anterior inferior frontal gyrus, which is known to be activated by environmental sounds, also seems to be involved in recognizing actions by sound. Consistent with previous research, seeing an action video (V) compared with seeing a non-action video activated the premotor cortex, intraparietal cortex, and the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus..."
I don't claim to understand the details of brain anatomy, but it may not be too far off to suggest that given the ability to observe and measure brain activity, better arrangements of technologies, better uses of existing technologies, and maybe new technologies altogether could be developed in the quest to make the experience of learning engaging and exciting for the student.
References:
Kaplan, J. T., & Iacoboni, M. (2007, May 15). Multimodal action representation in human left ventral premotor cortex. [Abstract] Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17503101
Wait, what? Part 2 posted first. Weird – I’ll try again. This is Part 1:
ReplyDeleteI may not get any credit for this because I was off by a week on my due dates - I thought this was due yesterday but it was due a week previously... so I may not be getting credit for last week's discussion question either. I also think I submitted it in the wrong place (Blackboard), my bad, so I'll put it here as well for whatever good it will do.
The blog isn’t letting me post so I’ll try posting half at a time.
Anyway, here is my response to: What is your definition of technology integration in the classroom? Why?
An answer to this question could well have input from experts in psychology of perception, industrial design, typography, and other areas as well as education.
The Edutopia quote is not bad at all, touching as it does on the transparency or seamlessness that should be part of the user's experience of high-tech equipment or software in the classroom (as it should be anywhere). (Personal note: I am not an educator per se though I work in an educational setting, a writing center with about 40 computers. A large portion of my time is spent trying to make the technology work and helping students find their way through various program and online interfaces. The ideal of true technological integration is years away for us if possible at all, and fighting the machines is more the norm than cooperating with them.)
I think it's almost certain that some now promising technologies will fail to prove out, others will become widely adopted, and new ones will continually be auditioning for a place in the classroom. And not all technologies will work for all students or all learning styles. A technology isn't useful by virtue of being new or the latest thing. A state of good technology integration begins to look more like an ongoing journey toward a never quite attainable ideal rather than a destination that can be achieved with any kind of finality.
To achieve integration, the technological components (hardware and software) not only must work with each other, but must also integrate with the most important part of the entire system - the student's brain.
Successful technology integration might occur when the student's senses are extended and his or her understanding is reinforced, and the work he produces show that his creative power is amplified. If the student's hearing, seeing, and doing appear to be operating at a high level, this would seem to be a sign of being on course.
To be a little more specific, if the technology energizes multiple areas of the student's brain (think of the ability of video to stimulate the auditory and visual areas of the cortex as well as the deeper emotional centers - seeing a memorably affecting movie for example), and if the technology focuses and concentrates the student's attention into a state of alertness (for as long as can be expected for his stage of mental development), rather than distracting and diffusing it, the technology would seem to be serving its purpose fairly well.
Discussion Question 2, part 1:
ReplyDelete"As digital natives, learners are familiar with using Web 2.0 tools for personal use such as social networking. Today's learners have grown up using video games, cell phones, computers and the Internet as regular acts in their daily lives. Should educators expect these learners to leave these tools outside of the classroom? Are educators able to effectively engage students through the use of textbooks and lectures only?"
Not working in a classroom myself, I don't have the benefit of real world experience with young learners. My comments are based only on my experience as a student and on what I've picked up from working in an educational arena.
At the utterly literal level, if an educator plans to deliver a lecture she should definitely ask her students to turn off all electronic devices or effective engagement won't take place.
Construing the question more broadly, my impression is that acceptance of the value of social media, smart phones, video games, and so on in education is still in an uncertain state. A track record showing where social media can be used profitably, for instance, is still in the early stages of being put together and will benefit future educators - in the present day we get to be part of the massive ongoing experiment. Other aspects seem more solidly grounded. For instance educational video games seem to have become widely accepted.
Here are a few points and thoughts that seem relevant in no particular order:
First point: textbooks and lectures aren't extremely efficient methods of transmission. They appear especially unglamorous next to the multimedia channels now available. On the other hand they are fairly foolproof, generally cheap to use, are difficult to break, and have been used successfully for centuries.
Second point: If an instructor is able to include electronic media in the lesson in a way that excites the students and helps cover the subject of study, then by all means he or she should do it. If it adds nothing or creates a distraction, she should leave it out.
Third point: The question asks "Should educators expect these learners to leave these tools outside of the classroom?" But are they tools or toys? I'm all for play in its place, but to be useful educationally "these tools" need to be used in an organized and disciplined way to concentrate the student's mind, not distract it.
Fourth point: There is a lack of standardization in what students have available. An instructor couldn't give an assignment requiring the use of an iPhone app because not every student has an iPhone for example. Related to this point is the gap between haves and have nots - students from wealthier families will be likely to have more gadgets and therefore more advantages.
Discussion Question 2 Part 2:
ReplyDeleteFifth point: Too much hype, too little substance. Stereotypes aside, not all kids with computers are geniuses, most aren't. Lessons using particular technologies would have to be accessible to the entire range of students in the course and the range might be quite wide.
Sixth point: It doesn't matter what we think. Taking cell phones as an example, (and it seems plausible that the same trend would apply, approximately, to other devices and practices) use by students in the 12-17 age range is still rising fast. Cell phones are in the classroom to stay. Outright bans enacted by some schools are still ignored by 65% of their students (Lenhart et al 2010).
7th point: There are many ways to make lemons into lemonade: blogger "Thomas" on the Open Education web site lists these ways cell phones can be incorporated into students' classes and daily activities:
"Timing experiments with stopwatch
Photographing apparatus and results of experiments for reports
Photographing development of design models for eportfolios
Photographing texts/whiteboards for future review
Bluetoothing project material between group members
Receiving SMS & email reminders from teachers
Synchronizing calendar/timetable and setting reminders
Connecting remotely to school learning platform
Recording a teacher reading a poem for revision
Accessing revision sites on the Internet
Creating short narrative movies
Downloading and listening to foreign language podcasts
Logging into the school email system
Using GPS to identify locations
Transferring files between school and home" (Thomas, 2009)
Given their versatility and increasing numbers, cell phones may become as uncontroversial as any other teaching tool.
References:
Lenhart, A., Ling, R., Campbell, S., & Purcell, Kristen. (2010, April 20). Teens and mobile phones. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP-Teens-and-Mobile-2010-with-topline.pdf
Thomas (screen name) (2009, February 8). Cell phones – time to lift the ban on mobiles in the school setting?. [Web log] Retrieved from http://www.openeducation.net/2009/02/08/cell-phones-time-to-lift-the-ban-on-mobiles-in-the-school-setting/
Discussion part 1
ReplyDeleteI had some confusion as to where this would be posted as well as the topic to be discussed.
Technology in the classroom is an absolute necessity in today’s society. Children are digital natives that are constantly using technology as a learning tool. When technology is integrated into the curriculum it allows children to facilitate their learning in a student- centered environment. However, there needs to be more professional development available for teachers so that they may become familiar with technology as well as the relevant applications that are necessary in training our 21st century students.
Michelle and Veronica I completely agree with your comments. Students have very keen insight when it comes to technological applications and the latest software. It is extremely unfortunate however that most educators do not know how to use these tools. Therefore, these tools are not being utilized in classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kate technology does need to “balanced” in the classroom. Technology should be used as a supporting resource in order to support students’ content mastery. Although technology does provide many diverse opportunities for learners, it is important to engage students in various ways so that they may use their multiple intelligences during the learning process. By utilizing technology as well as lessons that include the five senses students can increase their cognitive development in holistic manner.
ReplyDelete