The district in which I teach has provided me with several opportunities to integrate technology in my classroom. When I look back over my first 8 years of teaching, I feel very fortunate to be in such a district. In my classroom I have used a Smartboard, document cameras, individual response systems (or clickers), and most recently iPads. Last year I received a grant from our district that gave me 15 iPads, for a 2:1 student to tablet ratio. The use of iPads in 3rd grade has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for my students. I feel like the handheld technology I use in my classroom makes any lesson more engaging and allows me to create more authentic, project-based learning opportunities for my students.
One place I want to go with technology in my classroom was mentioned in the NMC Horizons Report 2013 K-12 Edition. I am very interested in using technology to help students track their own data and use learning analytics. Last year, I focused on having students track their test scores and set goals for future assessments. This strategy proved useful in motivating students and helping them to understand what they know and what they need to learn. The websites, like Kno Me, mentioned in the Horizons report are intriguing because they can deliver personalized information to each student about their tendencies in each subject. I believe there is a great deal of power in having students analyze their learning, and technology might just make this easier and more detailed than ever before.
In addition to tracking data, there are other activities and characteristics I strive to achieve in my 21st century classroom. I believe our classrooms today must be learner-centered. It is important for students to be both teachers and learners. Technology enables students to design their own learning opportunities and even present them to others, as seen with the students creating games in the PBS video. I also believe that activities in today's classroom must be authentic. Students need more practice with the technology and types of problems that they will face in the real world. One way I have implemented this is by giving more open-ended word problems in math. Instead of giving students all the information they need to solve a problem, I simply ask a question like, "How many addition facts can you solve during math class?" Students then have to generate their own questions, collect data, analyze the problem, and apply a strategy to solve it. Another important element in a 21st century classroom is exposure to a variety of technologies and digital tools. We don't want our students to rely on just one tool, they need to be able to analyze all that is available and choose the correct digital tool for the job.
The environment I strive to create in my classroom is a community of teachers and learners. I feel it is important in this technology driven age that students still learn the importance of human interaction and interdependence. Our class has three sayings that I either re-phrased or stole from professional development sessions I attended. The first, and most important to me, is "None of us is as smart as all of us." We learn best when we work together and rely on the knowledge of the group as a whole. The second is "We are all teachers and learners." Students can use digital and traditional tools to create presentations and become the instructor. Sometimes, my third graders can explain concepts to each other better than I can because they use terms and language their peers understand. The final saying that drives our classroom environment is "Successful learners have a reason for everything they say, think, and do." In the 21st century, successful people will be those who can analyze a situation, have an opinion, and defend their opinion. I try to instill that in my 3rd graders. This saying helps in learning, but also in behavior as we must be able to have a reason for any action we make as well.
The future is ever-changing and exciting. I am looking forward to learning more technology tools to help my students prepare for it!
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on students as teachers. I think it is a great idea to be intentional about providing students with opportunities to teach their peers. We retain so much more information when we need to explain it to others. How easy or difficult has it been to integrate the iPads into your classroom? Is there any difficulty resulting from having the 2:1 ratio rather than a 1:1? Thanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't been difficult integrating the iPads per se, it has just been a shift in thinking. My district has also provided us with 135 hours of PD (over this year and next) with the iPads. I've learned a lot in the PD sessions and it has made the integration fairly easy.
DeleteI would of course prefer 1:1, but my kids have done great sharing the work load with their iPad partners. We have "partner a" and "partner b", which allows me to make sure both students get a turn. The only time I have really wished for a 1:1 was when I made a video for the kids to watch, kind of a flipped classroom thing. I could only have one kid watch at a time.
Great post Brian. I really loved the quote "None of us is as smart as all of us". If you don't mind, I may borrow that quote to post in my high school math classroom. I couldn't agree with you more about the need for student/teacher interaction and it is my belief that as important as technology is for today's learner and classroom, there is no substitute for the teacher. IPads for your third graders sounds like a great idea. Every high school student in my large district has a MacBook Air but I really wish they had iPods or iPads instead because there are some really cool math apps for these devises which are not available with the MacBook.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind at all, go ahead and use the quote. I stole it from my principal anyway!
DeleteYou are right, there is no substitute for the teacher. Our roles may change as we become more technology heavy, but we still are important!