I've gotten the chance this week to go into 37 classrooms and see great teaching and learning happening. I've also gotten some preliminary data for where our district is in terms of technology integration. Of the 37 classrooms I visited, 26 classrooms were using technology. That may not seem like a lot, but we have to remember that we want to see appropriate use of technology. In the classes without technology use, the non-use may have been appropriate to the learning task. Also, non-use may be due to lack of resources. For example, one class I visited was taking a quiz. Not using technology in this instance is appropriate; at the same time, taking a right/wrong answer quiz through Google forms makes taking and grading very efficient. Google has an add-on that will allow teachers to give a quiz, grade the quiz, and send personalized individual feedback through email. If this classroom had access to a device for every student, perhaps the teacher would have used technology to assess, but without it, it's not an option. We need to make it an option.
I do want to highlight two great stories from my co-teaching and observations. First, hearing the joyous giggle of a student with autism as he took a selfie with his classmates is why I'm doing this and why technology to me is a necessity. The technology allowed this student to interact in a safe way and caused him to react with emotion. That's awesome. Second, I got to co-teach Google Docs in a 4th grade classroom this, which was a totally new experience, given my high school background. We often take for granted that students are technologically savvy, and yet, yesterday, we had to explain how to use the delete button to erase text. At the same time, society expects our students to be technologically proficient, so we aren't doing our job if we don't give our students opportunities to raise their proficiency level. As I was leaving, one of the 4th grade boys rushed to me at the door to give me a hug and say thank you. If you know anything about boys, they're not demonstrative of emotion even at that age. And yet, getting the opportunity to learn the technology was important enough for him to show his appreciation in front of his entire class. That's the power of technology.
If structure creates behavior, and we want to see more technology behaviors, we have to create the structures to allow that to happen. I want to see more smiling faces, more joy, and more awesome learning, and I know technology can help us to get there.
I do want to highlight two great stories from my co-teaching and observations. First, hearing the joyous giggle of a student with autism as he took a selfie with his classmates is why I'm doing this and why technology to me is a necessity. The technology allowed this student to interact in a safe way and caused him to react with emotion. That's awesome. Second, I got to co-teach Google Docs in a 4th grade classroom this, which was a totally new experience, given my high school background. We often take for granted that students are technologically savvy, and yet, yesterday, we had to explain how to use the delete button to erase text. At the same time, society expects our students to be technologically proficient, so we aren't doing our job if we don't give our students opportunities to raise their proficiency level. As I was leaving, one of the 4th grade boys rushed to me at the door to give me a hug and say thank you. If you know anything about boys, they're not demonstrative of emotion even at that age. And yet, getting the opportunity to learn the technology was important enough for him to show his appreciation in front of his entire class. That's the power of technology.
If structure creates behavior, and we want to see more technology behaviors, we have to create the structures to allow that to happen. I want to see more smiling faces, more joy, and more awesome learning, and I know technology can help us to get there.