How do you know when you're doing something right in education? What we do is often subject to our own interpretation but there are some ways to ensure that students are gaining an understanding of new material and are able to apply it.
When approached by teachers to help them use technology, I always ask the question, why are you using technology? What should students know and be able to do by the end of your lesson? My hope is that learning a new technology isn't the outcome of the lesson but that content learning is. That being said, students will learn little content if they are busy learning a new technology so teachers must balance introducing new technology skills with precious content.
My suggestion is that you think through the following questions when creating lessons that you plan to teach in conjunction with technology, using the backwards planning method.
1. What is the academic standard your teaching? What should students know and be able to do?
2. How will you know that students have learned the skills you are teaching and what evidence will you see?
3. Then we get to the how. What technology might facilitate the learning and/or assessment of my lesson?
I don't use technology if I can't answer the question "How will technology help me teach or assess this lesson?" I never shoe horn the technology to fit where it doesn't. The knowledge I draw on comes from an understanding of TPACK as outlined by Matthew Koehler and Punya Mishra.
Feel free to use the resource Evan Obranovic and I created to work with our Aspen, CO teachers. Technology Integration Curriculum Planning Template
When approached by teachers to help them use technology, I always ask the question, why are you using technology? What should students know and be able to do by the end of your lesson? My hope is that learning a new technology isn't the outcome of the lesson but that content learning is. That being said, students will learn little content if they are busy learning a new technology so teachers must balance introducing new technology skills with precious content.
My suggestion is that you think through the following questions when creating lessons that you plan to teach in conjunction with technology, using the backwards planning method.
1. What is the academic standard your teaching? What should students know and be able to do?
2. How will you know that students have learned the skills you are teaching and what evidence will you see?
3. Then we get to the how. What technology might facilitate the learning and/or assessment of my lesson?
I don't use technology if I can't answer the question "How will technology help me teach or assess this lesson?" I never shoe horn the technology to fit where it doesn't. The knowledge I draw on comes from an understanding of TPACK as outlined by Matthew Koehler and Punya Mishra.
 |
| Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org |
As educators we must be sure we're asking the right questions and using technology to help us or our students do the things we couldn't otherwise do without technology!
No comments:
Post a Comment