Tag Archives: SAMR

Leveraging Technology for Learning with the SAMR Model (Part 4)

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As the name indicates, every post on this blog is about leveraging technology for learning. But I’ve been focusing this current series of posts on the SAMR model as a tool for determining how we leverage technology, and how we can use it to transform student learning. For this post, the last in this series, I’d like to focus on how mobile devices have the potential to change the way we learn.

When I think about the biggest impact my smartphone has had on my life, it’s not the ability to capture any of life’s moments with a good camera that’s always with me. That’s pretty high on the list, but it’s really the way my phone allows me to satisfy my curiosity and provide me with the information I need, on demand, at any given moment (provided I’m not in a “dead zone”). I’ve heard some refer to smartphones as “wonder-killers” and I appreciate that perspective…a lot of rich conversations revolve around trying to remember the details of our collective past, or wondering and guessing at interesting questions that arise. If overused to satisfy our daily wonderings, especially in social settings, don’t we run the risk of losing something special and unique to our humanity and move one step closer to The Singularity?

While I try to keep this question in the back of my mind while using technology, I prefer to view my smartphone as a curiosity-statisfier, rather than a wonder-killer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked something up on my phone to help me solve a problem, satisfy a curiosity, or simply learn something new. Smartphone technology and mobile apps have gotten so good, that they’ve become excellent research tools and have great potential to fuel inquiry-based learning. Thanks to bigger screens and faster Internet speeds (both WiFi and cellular), it’s becoming harder to brush smartphones and tablets off as research tools with the argument that you really need a much bigger screen and a keyboard to do any serious research.

This article about how BYOD programs can fuel inquiry-based learning offers some good insights in terms of how to make smartphones and tablets work as learning and research tools. As Tim Clark, coordinator of instructional technology for Forsyth County Schools in Georgia, notes: “Kids already know how to use their devices, but they don’t know how to learn with their devices,” suggesting that the teacher’s role is to help them discover how a device that was previously used only for texting, gaming, and social networking can actually be a powerful learning tool. Of course, this means that their teachers need to get comfortable using their mobile devices as research tools along with information gathering apps like Diigo (which I explained in Part 3 of this series) and Google Drive. Like anything else, using mobile devices and new apps takes practice, and that, of course, takes time. None of us have enough of it, but when you find it, let me know and I’ll be happy to help you get more comfortable using mobile devices in your classroom in transformative ways, whether it be during a planning period, PLC meeting, or after school.

Aside from time, what are some other hurdles keeping you from embracing regular use of mobile devices in your classroom? Are your students too young to handle the responsibility of bringing their own devices to school? Until high-quality tablets cost under $100, that hurdle may be too high to overcome for elementary teachers. Is it an equity issue…worried about the haves and the have-nots? That’s a valid concern to which we should all be sensitive. But with our growing supply of Chromebooks and laptops, shouldn’t we start considering putting those devices into a lending pool at the middle and high schools, rather than dedicate them all to carts that teachers check out for the whole class? This way students can use a Chromebook for the day if they can’t or don’t want to bring their tablet, smartphone, or personal laptop to school. Whatever the obstacle, leave a comment below so we can figure out how to overcome them. Or, if you have a mobile learning success story, please share that as well. Thanks for reading!

POST-SCRIPT…

While I highly recommend the article I linked at the top of the fourth paragraph, it comes up short in terms of explaining how to get started with the inquiry process, with or without mobile devices. No one has mastered this process better than the fine folks over at The Right Question Institute. Their website offers some great resources that will help you get your students asking their own meaningful questions for deep exploration, but if you’re looking to master inquiry-based learning, you should really check out the book Make Just One Change, by RQI directors Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana. While I’m no master yet, I’ve used their strategies with MPS teachers, and they work!

make-just-one-change-cover

 

Leveraging Technology for Learning with the SAMR Model (Part 3)

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While the first post in this series presented foundational information about the SAMR model, which can be used to assess how we use technology in our classrooms, the second gave specific examples of how teachers can leverage technology to enhance and begin transforming learning. Part 3 will now focus solely on practices and tasks that were previously inconceivable without the technology — those practices that sit solidly in the R of SAMR: Redefinition (see graphic below).

In order to redefine learning tasks and transform learning, technology has to allow for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable. Sound like a pretty tall order? Well, it’s actually not, if you consider the way one piece of technology has changed the way we gather information in our every day lives — the Internet. Prior to the ubiquity of the World Wide Web, we got most of our news and current events information from mainstream newspapers, magazines, and television and radio programs that were pretty limited in their scope. Since most of these news sources depend on advertiser funding, the information they present typically represent the views of the majority, lest they offend their audiences and advertisers pull their funding. Now we live in a much more information rich society. The advent of 24-hour cable news in the 1980s marked the beginning of the Information Age, but things really exploded when broadband Internet access made it so that anyone with an Internet connection and computer could start their own news media outlet and share their views with the world, covering the news s/he viewed as the most important. This has had a profound impact on the way news is delivered, as Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen points out here:

“The practice of gathering all sides of an issue, and keeping an editorial voice out of it is still relevant for some, but the broad journalism opportunity includes many variations of subjectivity. … the objective approach is only one way to tell stories and get at truth. Many stories don’t have ‘two sides.’ Indeed, presenting an event or an issue with a point of view can have even more impact, and reach an audience otherwise left out of the conversation.”

So what does this have to do with how we leverage technology in the classroom? Keeping Mr Andreessen’s words in mind, isn’t it more important than ever for us to teach our students how to make sense of the world around them? How to navigate the streams of information coming at them through social media? How to question the “variations of subjectivity” they see in a digital and cable news environment? And isn’t the ability to do so what we mean when we talk about the 21st Century Capacities of Synthesizing and Analyzing? I believe the answer to all the questions above is a resounding YES, and here’s what a learning experience that leverages technology and the Web might look like for our students…

For all learners, controversy = engagement, so I suggest finding articles on the Web that speak to one of the most pressing and controversial issues of our time, like climate change, income inequality, money in politics, digital surveillance by government agencies as a way of combating terrorism, or matters of race in America. Given recent events in which unarmed black men were killed by white police officers, let’s use this as an example. A social studies teacher might have students analyze the way white folks and black folks experience and view law enforcement by reading and viewing a series of articles and news clips. After establishing a common understanding of the events surrounding the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the subsequent protests by reading/viewing more objective mainstream news clips, students could then start to process the many variations of subjectivity we’ve been seeing on the Web. This could include a popular post in defense of police officers that’s been making the rounds on social media…

Fb post

Then they could get a different perspective from an article from Alternet.org titled “Most White People in America Are Completely Oblivious” before moving on to this one from FoxNews. Or how about viewing related news segments that express very different perspectives on the issue from Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart? Perhaps a final performance task for this kind of learning unit could be a class debate on white privilege in America à la Stewart/O’Reilly.

The point is, we need to get our students in the habit of mind of questioning all the subjective viewpoints they will encounter on the Web. And we need to design learning experiences that will make them more adept at synthesizing all these viewpoints and pieces of information, and that call on them to ask their own questions to research, so that they can get to some semblance of the truth.

At this point you may be thinking, Ok, but does this really redefine learning tasks through technology? I mean, teachers have been asking their students to think critically about various perspectives since before the Internet existed. While this is true, I think it’s important to note that the technology in this case, the Internet, has redefined how we receive our information. Moreover, there are online tools we can leverage to gather digital information and help us process it better than before. One such tool for which I’m in the process of setting up accounts for Madison teachers and students is Diigo. It’s essentially an online bookmarking tool that allows students to save, highlight, and annotate any article on the Web, and it has some great collaborative features, too. In short, it allows for the creation of the kinds of tasks that were previously inconceivable without it.

For my elementary and lower middle school readers who often struggle to find appropriate online content for their developing young readers and thinkers, and are right now questioning how relevant this post is to them, I’d like to share an excellent tool that Brown Middle School principal Julie Phelps recently turned me on to called Newsela — a website that contains news and current events articles that can all be customized to five different lexile reading levels. So, yes, even elementary students can process current events like the Brown/Garner decisions by reading articles like this one.

This is just one example of how Web-based technologies have the potential to transform and redefine learning, and I’m sure many of you have designed similar experiences for your students. Please help inspire your colleagues by sharing them in the comments section below!

Leveraging Technology for Learning with the SAMR Model (Part 2)

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Last week I began a series of posts focusing on leveraging technology for learning using the SAMR model. While that initial post provided a general overview of the different levels at which one can incorporate digital tools to enhance, or better yet, transform learning, I thought it would be helpful for the rest of this series to provide specific examples of technology use in the classroom and where these uses fall on the SAMR spectrum between substitution to redefinition. I’ve chosen the SAMR model to evaluate technology use, but it’s worth noting that it’s not the only one out there. Another model worth checking out is the Lo-Ti framework for technology use. I especially like this organization’s resource materials for digital age best practices. But because I prefer the simplicity of the SAMR model, I’ll be referring to the model below while describing some of the technology uses I’ve seen our schools, as well as some suggested uses I’d like to offer.

Let’s start by looking at a digital tool that has gained popularity in recent years and that I know many of your are familiar with — Prezi. Now, with typical use, this tool sits solidly in Augmentation on the SAMR spectrum. Essentially, it’s a digital canvas on which you can organize and display text, images, videos, and hyperlinks, and it’s got a really slick interface that allows the viewer to zoom in on different parts of the canvas. Basically it’s an online poster or presentation tool, but what moves it from Substitution to Augmentation are the functional improvements over regular posterboard of being able to host your Prezi online and share it with a wide audience, being able to embed videos and hyperlinks, and its dynamic and interactive viewing experience.

However, as Island Ave. 4th grade teacher Laura Tanner demonstrated to me with her students this week, when combined with other digital tools and a more collaborative approach, a Prezi project can move “above the line” from Augmentation to Modification. When her students researched and studied Algonquin Native American tribes, they incorporated Google Docs to collectively record what they believed were the most important pieces of information about Algonquin culture on a shared Google doc prior to creating their Prezis individually. Adding this layer to the Prezi project allowed for a pretty significant task redesign (Modification). The shared Google doc allowed them to build a collective understanding that would have been extremely difficult to develop without this technology. In this same vein, her students could leverage certain features of the technology to stay above the line that separates Modification from Augmentation by sharing links to their Prezis on a class blog or website (Google Sites or Kidblog) and giving each other feedback on their work. Or students could become experts on different aspects of Algonquin culture, then team up with a partner and use their collective intelligence to create a shared Prezi that shows more depth of knowledge than those created by students individually.

I think it’s worth noting here that one of the key characteristics of technology use that sits “above the line” is that it calls on students to develop specific 21st Century Capacities. In the example above, it’s clear that Laura is providing students with opportunities to develop their Collective Intelligence and Product Creation skills.

I hope the example above has given you some inspiration to leverage technology in new and meaningful ways, but I’d love to hear how other teachers are incorporating technology and where you think those uses sit on the SAMR continuum. (All four levels of the continuum are good, by the way, depending on the task at hand.) Please leave a comment below.

Leveraging Technology for Learning with the SAMR Model (Part 1)

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In my travels throughout the district helping teachers leverage technology, I’ve been impressed by how many have told me that they have chosen Professional Practice Goal 3.3: Leveraging Technology for Learning for their evaluation plan. Every teacher I talk to seems eager to incorporate more technology into their teaching in meaningful ways, but many struggle with finding the right digital tools to match desired learning outcomes. Equally challenging is using technology in a way that not only enhances but transforms student learning, rather than simply using new technology as a direct replacement for old technology with little or no functional improvement to the work students are able to produce. So how can we, as teachers, find the right digital learning tools and evaluate how well we’re incorporating technology into our instructional practice? One way is to use the SAMR model, a tool Dr. Ruben Puentedura developed  as a way for teachers to reflect upon how they are integrating technology into their classrooms. Check out the video below for an overview, then head over to Dr. Puentedura’s blog for some great resources on how to use the SAMR model in your classroom. If video isn’t your thing, or you’d like a bit more in depth explanation of what SAMR might look like in the classroom, check out this short article.

As this is part of a series of posts focusing on the SAMR model to transform learning through technology, stay tuned for more posts that give exemplars for teaching “above the line.”

SAMR – a visual representation with some examples