TIE536_Technology In Schools Report

I found the “Technology in Schools Report” to be an interesting read. As I think about my own school situation, we are dramatically behind the technology curve of the surrounding west suburban high schools. It causes me to think about exactly how much is technology integrated into the daily education of our students. We’ve got a great physical plant: a huge building project was completed two years ago that created 47 new classrooms, a multipurpose and dividable classroom or meeting space, a ‘commons’ area for students, new administrative offices, two large instrumental music rooms and a large field house. This addressed the overcrowding issues in classrooms and cafeteria, and also improved the instructional and performance environments for our instrumental music and athletic programs. Our school is immaculate in appearance, but has this all put us in a position to do a better job of preparing our students for life after grade 12?

It certainly has made my school a more pleasant ‘place’ to come each day. However, the fact is that we are still missing a big piece of the educational puzzle: the integration of technology into the curriculum. We face two primary barriers to effective technology integration. First, as stated in the article, is the “the lack of access to reliable, up-to-date technology.” Second is the lack of teacher knowledge and confidence in using technology to enhance their lessons, much less integrate it into the curriculum.

Although my school has a number of computer labs available to students, only two of them have computers that are less than three years old. These labs are specifically dedicated to technology-driven classes and are not available to other classes on a reserve basis. The computers in the other labs have been maxed out on their memory, and are limited by the slow processing speed. The addition of two new laptop carts with 16 laptops each has helped address this issue, but I fear they are being under-utilized. The teacher workstations in most classrooms are older, with slow processors and low amounts of memory. This presents an initial barrier in terms of the ability of an individual teacher to use their prep time to develop any activities that could be integrated into the curriculum. The teacher workstations need to be upgraded to provide equipment with which it is reasonable to create new educational tools and experiences.

Secondly, there is a low level of teacher confidence in integrating technology into the curriculum on a regular basis. Some teachers have begun to venture into this arena on an occasional basis, but the reality is that more professional development in this area is needed. Currently, our administration has started a ‘Tech Time’ program of presentations by the faculty, which can be attended on your prep period. The presenters are given the day off and a sub is provided so that they can present throughout the day. However, attendees must give up their own free time to take advantage of the opportunity. In my opinion, our district needs to be more supportive of this, and use teacher institute days to provide exposure to the different ways to integrate technology into their curriculum.

TIE536_Meaningful Learning

The strongest concept I took from Monday night’s discussion on meaningful learning was the idea of making connections to prior learning and reshaping it. It was clear from the concept map constructed that there are many factors that affect meaningful learning, not the least of which is taking the time to examine the idea closely enough to try to define it.

In doing some extra reading on the topic, I found Judith Boettcher’s examination of the “Ah-Ha experience” interesting and pertinent to this discussion. Her analysis of this experience identifies it as occurring when "the new higher concepts in turn transform the meaning of the lower." She continues by talking about concept experiences, and concludes that “concept can happen when a magnet suddenly organizes lots of bits and bytes. Insight when bits, bytes suddenly are drawn in, attached to existing concept.” Being a visually-oriented person, I love the magnet analogy! I think we’ve all had Ah-Ha moments ourselves, but I thoroughly enjoy it when I observe this happening with one of my students—the moment when all the pieces fall together. The challenge of differentiating instruction is to figure what bits and bytes of knowledge will connect for any given student; or for that matter, figuring out what kind of magnet to use that will attract the right previous learning experiences in the right order to pull the picture together.

I’m paying more attention these days to working on expanding my repertoire of teaching approaches, using a variety of teaching styles, media types and collaborative learning situations to keep it interesting for the students, but also attempting to find the magnet that works for each student. The journey continues.

SOURCES:
Boettcher, Judith V. “Designing for Learning.” 2006. 2 Oct. 2008. http://www.designingforlearning.info/index.htm.