{"id":25,"date":"2013-07-05T11:21:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T18:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/?p=25"},"modified":"2013-07-05T11:21:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-05T18:21:20","slug":"integrating-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/2013\/07\/05\/integrating-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrating Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found an article today when we were researching the many facets of ICT teaching that I really connected with. \u00a0The premise of the article<\/a> is that technology is not being used effectively in classrooms. \u00a0Bowman argues many that teachers feel that technology is an add on, something else they have to teach (technology education), when instead we should be looking at technology as a tool to help us teach better (technology integration). \u00a0He provides several bad examples of technology in classrooms and several ideas for good use of technology. \u00a0He also stresses the importance of teachers being trained with the skills to use technology (relatively easy) and professional development for how to integrate technology (harder).<\/p>\n

The dichotomy between teaching technology skills and using technology for meaningful curricular activities reminds me of a discussion that has been happening at my school. \u00a0We have a fine arts focus, and students currently receive one hour of instruction per week in each of the four disciplines (music, drama, dance, visual art). \u00a0As a staff, we have had discussions about our vision and how we want to grow. \u00a0Some teachers are very committed to the four disciplines being taught explicitly, so students have the appropriate skills and vocabulary. \u00a0Others are more in favour of an integrated approach, where learning activities are planned which enhance students’ understanding of both the academic curriculum and the arts. \u00a0While I understand the need for explicit instruction, I am more on the side of integration, mostly because of the time constraints. \u00a0With four hours of the school week taken up with the arts, it can sometimes be a challenge to fit everything you want to do into the schedule. \u00a0If I can integrate the arts in a meaningful way with curriculum, then I think that is the best use of time, but it does require some confidence and proficiency on the part of the teacher.<\/p>\n

Teaching with technology also requires confidence and proficiency from the teacher, although I think there is plenty of room for teachers to learn alongside students. \u00a0I believe technology shouldn’t be an add on. \u00a0It should be used for meaningful activities, that couldn’t be done without technology, or at least are done much better with technology. \u00a0Playing with a magnet letter app on the iPad… fun, but students aren’t gaining anything that they wouldn’t get from playing with real magnet letters. \u00a0Using a voice recording app on the iPad to record students reading in first term, then reading the same book in second term, and having them reflect on their own progress… much more meaningful and not possible without technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found an article today when we were researching the many facets of ICT teaching that I really connected with. \u00a0The premise of the article is that technology is not being used effectively in classrooms. \u00a0Bowman argues many that teachers feel that technology is an add on, something else they have to teach (technology education), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[884],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assignment-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/collinsamy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}