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I have already drunk the “technology integration Kool-Aid”…and I like it! I don’t think I would have enrolled in COETAIL, started a blog, spent hours figuring out how to use technologies, flipped my classroom, or read copious amounts of literature about utilizing technology had I not firmly believed in the value of tech integration. Tech integration is not easy, but is anything of great value ever easy?
Our students today have grown up with computers. They use them 24 hours a day. They already use technology subconsciously, that is, they don’t even think about not using it. These digital natives can’t function well without it. Tech is an extension of themselves that allows them to be in multiple, far-reaching places and dimensions at the same time. How can we not integrate technology into our classrooms? Not only do we need to make sure technology is woven throughout the fabric of learning, but we and our students have to stay current. That’s not teaching every single application or tool, but finding the right application or tool and learning to use it to the fullest.
TPACK Framework
In Rebekah Madrid’s post about her COETAIL experience, she did a Wordle of all of her posts throughout the course. The fact that words like “students”, “teaching”, “learn”, and “think” were bigger than “technology” really demonstrates that technology isn’t, and shouldn’t be, the focus. Knowledge is power, whether it is pedagogical, content or technological power. A synthesis of these would be like superpower knowledge. Isn’t that what we want for our students? We want to give them that sense of power and confidence that comes with knowledge. We want to equip them for their future, whatever that future may look like.
For me, flipping my classroom has allowed me to integrate technology not only in my teaching, but in student learning too. The flipped instructional model is made richer through technology. In fact, some of the things I do in my flipped class would not be possible without technology. Authentic assessment and product pieces require not only a deep understanding of content, but also the ability to apply and synthesize that knowledge using 21st century skills. In the flipped model my students have more time to do that in class, where I can guide them, both in content and technology.
Image from psd
Technology is here to stay, but that technology is going to mutate and evolve in ways no one can predict. Unless we are teaching students who are going to become tech experts, we don’t need to worry that they learn every application and every tool…I doubt anyone will be able to know all of that anyway. As David Warlick states, ” I would suggest that students simply learn to apply computers to solve problems or accomplish goals…learn how computers can help them do interesting things, and then gain the skills and confidence required to teach themselves, with the guidance of their teachers, the applications to make it happen.” We can’t afford to miss the “technology boat”. Our students will sink without it.