The real challenge is not integrating technology effectively. It’s developing a vision for technology use
The other day I was working with a group of elementary school teachers on lesson planning with technology. They were introducing some new vocabulary words to their fourth grade students and were looking for some ideas. As we began, they said very little and it was clear were expecting me to introduce some new tools and apps that they might adopt in their classrooms.
Instead, I asked them a question: How can you be sure that students understand the vocabulary? Over the next several minutes we discussed ways in which the teachers would be certain that students knew and understood the new vocabulary words. One of the teachers offered that if the students really understood a vocabulary word they would be able to find and identify a relevant and appropriate picture depicting the word.
Another mentioned that if the students understood the vocabulary word they would be able to identify a recorded description of the word amongst recordings of other words. So, we began our technology integration process by envisioning learning activities that would demonstrate student mastery of curriculum content.…Read More