my educational journey

Your inspiration came from a dynamic workshop you attended over the summer that was all about integrating technology to be transformative rather than simply replacing pencil and paper.

In case 10, the teacher was focusing on how to integrate technology in a transformative, meaningful way, rather than simply replacing pencil and paper. Integrating technology into the classroom in a meaningful way is essential in today’s technologically advanced world. Increasingly, students’ lives outside the classroom are filled with advancing technology. This includes but is not limited to social media and pop-culture related games and media. Technology is also available in varying degrees to young children across cultures and languages, and is proven to help ELL students in particular as long as it is used in a meaningful, purposeful way that supplements classroom material. In an increasingly technologically advanced society, using technology across environments (home, school, social community) helps enhance children’s lives as well as their learning.

Technology also has the potential to be transformative for our students, when it allows them to exchange ideas, learn, and create in a way that goes beyond what they could possibly do with the usual paper-and-pencil type of materials. This is possible when they reach the last stage of the SAMR model, and they are able to redefine their learning through technology; computer technology allows for them to go beyond what they could otherwise do without out. Some examples of this would be using GarageBand to engage with music and creativity differently, or using student-led blogs for them to create connections with the worldwide as well as the school community. Through my unit plan, I am using technology such as Scribjab, Padlet, and ShowMe to allow my students to use technology in a transformative way.

This approach is called blended learning, which is defined as technology-enhanced learning that is online and in the classroom, and an effective approach to enhance education (BC Ministry of Education, Premiers’ Technology Council, 2010). It emphasizes learning across the home and school environments, and therefore connects technology to different aspects of the students’ lives in a more meaningful way than what would be if technology was simply isolated into one environment. Moreover, integrating transformative technology into the classroom narrows the gap between “non-ELL and ELL children in knowledge of words targeted during the intervention was closed, and the gap in general vocabulary knowledge” (Silverman & Hines, 2009).

However, before introducing primary students to new technology, we must focus on how communication is changing due to changing technology and the variability in meaning making in different cultural and social contexts. Integrating transformative technology into the classroom is ultimately a significant part of multiliteracies. We must acknowledge and understand the influence of increasing social, cultural and linguistic diversity on literacy and literate practices; and critical literacy. It is important that students understand how literacy is influenced by different perspectives, social, cultural, and technological factors. We must teach students to be literate through multimodal mediums, in socially responsible ways, and how to fully participate in life as active and informed citizens.

Below, you will find a presentation I created with Sigrid Robiso and Carol Lin that discusses benefits of technology (for ELL students in particular) and examples of ways to integrate it into the classroom. This includes theories that support multimodal learning and learning through technology, such as the theory of synergy (Neumann, 1997) which emphasizes the benefits of learning in multimodal ways. The dual–coding theory is also relevant, as it emphasizes the benefits of learning through more than one mode, such as verbal and non-verbal (Paivio, 1986).

Resources:

B.C. Premier’s Technology Council. (2010). A Vision for 21st Century Education. Retrieved from http://www.gov.bc.ca/premier/attachments/PTC_vision%20for_education.pdf.

Silverman, R., & Hines, S. (2009). The effects of multimedia-enhanced instruction on the vocabulary of english-language learners and non-english-language learners in pre-kindergarten through second grade. Journal of Educational Psychology,101(2), 305-314. doi:10.1037/a0014217.

Transformation in a Wired World. (2016). Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/caseten/