Technology is obviously an essential element in our instructional toolkit. Knowing how and when and for what purposes to use this technology is much more important than the technology itself. Technology integration in instruction requires much more than just digital literacy and technical knowledge, it requires foresight, clear intentions, and well planned goals. The purpose is to meet students learning needs and as such technology is only a means to an end and not the end itself.
An important step in the process of effective integration of technology in education is having a pedagogical approach supported by a theoretical framework to ground your technology practices inside the classroom. Of course there are several frameworks to help you teach using technology but three approaches in particular stand out from the rest. These are SAMR model, TPACK model, and Marslow model.
1- SAMR model
SAMR is a framework through which you can assess and evaluate the technology you use in your classroom. This framework is made up of 4 levels:
Substitution
In a substitution level, teachers or students are only using new technology tools to replace old ones, for instance, using Google Docs to replace Microsoft Word. the task ( writing) is the same but the tools are different.
Augmentation
Though it is a different level, but we are still in the substitution mentality but this time with added functionalities. Again using the example of Google docs, instead of only writing a document and having to manually save it and share it with others, Google Docs provides extra services like auto saving, auto syncing, and auto sharing in the cloud.
Modification
This is the level where technology is being used more effectively not to do the same task using different tools but to redesign new parts of the task and transform students learning. An example of this is using the commenting service in Google Docs, for instance, to collaborate and share feedback on a given task task.
Redefinition
If you are to place this level in Blooms revised taxonomy pyramid, it would probably correspond to synthesis and evaluation as being the highest order thinking skills. Redefinition means that students use technology to create imperceptibly new tasks. An example of redefinition is when students connect to a classroom across the world where they would each write a narrative of the same historical event using the chat and comment section to discuss the differences, and they use the voice comments to discuss the differences they noticed and then embed this in the class website.
Contact Us -
.png)
