I recently wrote a piece for Education Week: Teacher. It is basically a synthesis of my most popular blog posts from this site, but may be a helpful overview of Technology Redefinition for those who are interested.The title is "Redefining Instruction with Technology: Five Essential Steps".
Thank you everyone for reading and retweeting! I welcome any and all comments!
It's a great article -thank you for sharing your experiences.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job Jennie! I'm excited about examining your experiencing with the iPads and exploring how I can use it to help teachers I'm working with change their pedagogy for incorporating Media Carts (projectors, laptop, document camera, speakers) that are being introduced into their classrooms. Often times they become a tool to simply replace what they are already doing rather than transforming their entire day. Its not quite 1:1 and differentiated like your program but its a step in the right direction for my district. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I am glad to hear that you are also integrating iPads into your instruction. Let me know if you want to collaborate or have any questions!
DeleteThis is a great article, Jenny. It really connects to the COETAIL course I'm currently taking with Jeff Utecht. Your reflection that you had to transform your classroom and your teaching practices is something that all the participants of our course are currently grappling with. It's great to see how successful you've been and also a little reassuring to know that it has taken you a considerable period of time to get to where you are now. I know it'll take me a while too and I hope that I'm patient enough to introduce things slowly. You're right about needing to set clear goals and be purposeful in the introduction of technology. We all too often rush into trying to use technology and it's not always enhancing learning. Your comment on the need to "create new teaching methods rather than just replacing old ones" is also very true and connects well to Marc Prensky's article 'Shaping Tech for the Classroom' where he discusses the need for us all to aim to teach 'New Things in New Ways'. http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
ReplyDeleteGood luck with continuing to integrate the i-pad into your classroom!