In their 2012 book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis created a Taxonomy of Global Connection that shows a hierarchy of 5 different levels of online interaction. It begins with connecting students in a class using Web 2.0 tools and ends with students managing their own global connections with other learners across the world. The interesting part of this hierarchy is that it isn't just about the technology. It has multiple strands of complexity:
Geographic Location: This strand begins within the classroom and then extends into the school/district and finally traverses the globe.
Project Management: The second strand involves who is in control of the interactions. The bottom two levels are local interactions controlled by the classroom teacher. The middle level involves an online global collaborative experience that is managed by an external educator or group of educators. The top two levels involve student-to-student connections in an effort to achieve agreed upon goals. Level 4 is managed by teachers who manage, facilitate and monitor the project as well as managing the timeline. Level 5 uses teachers as facilitators but the students are actually running this peer-to-peer project.
This is a fascinating way to look at global learning. How does it fit your collaborative projects or your idea of how global collaborative projects should be organized?
One of the toughest parts about leading educators toward using technology to engage learning is getting past talking about using technology for the sake of using technology to using technology to engage learning.
Click the table to enlarge it to read it.
I was intrigued when I found the table below on Clif Mims' paper.li publication, Clif's Notes on #Edtech. (It was actually created by ADITI RAO and published on Teachbytes.com) The beauty of using the table below, is that it provides a vocabulary that we can use when we discuss how to use technology with our colleagues.
Where does your curriculum lie in this table?
Technology Integration Matrix
There are other important tools that provide vocabulary for using technology to engage learning. There is the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM)which provides a system of 25 cells that have 5 columns headed with terms identifying the Levels of Tech Integration (complexity of technology use/level of student centricity) across the top and down the left side are 5 Characteristics of a Learning Environment. The beauty of this matrix is that provides a system that you can use to identify where you are in a lesson/activity you are teaching and then suggestions for how you can increase your level of Technology Integration. Both the Original Florida version and the Arizona versions have videos and lesson plans for creating these learning environments. I have included a more complete description of these tools in another posting, Building Learning Through Technology. Based upon the TIM matrix, I would say that most of the previous chart's activities in the left column involve Entry and Adoption while the right column describes Adaption, Infusion and Transformation. What do you think?
You may not have heard about the TIM, but you have been using SAMR in your schools. This is another ?? for defining Technology Integration. Developed by Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D. to describe a ladder of implementation, this four-stage hierarchy considers the bottom two levels to be forms of Enhancement and the top two levels in the class of Transformation. While the students' role in the learning process is implied in the SAMR, I must admit that I like the TIM better because it specifically defines the changing roles of the students in the pedagogical process.
JUST IN: As I was writing this, I discovered another relevant graphic on FaceBook (yes, sometimes I veer off into FaceBook when I am looking for inspiration ;-) This is another graphic that fits the role of identifying how we want students to use technology. In this case, I would say that the Wrong column includes Adoption and Adaptation in the TIM matrix and the Right answers may fit in the Infusion and Transformation columns with some of them not even fitting on the matrix but including things that we want to see in education, (i.e., Start Conversations.) What do you think?
The final quote, "Technology is a Tool, NOT a Learning Outcome," encapsulates this whole posting. Technology is not an end unto itself - it is a means to an end that will hopefully lead to empowered and active learners.
BTW, This graphic is created by Bill Ferriter who writes a blog entitled The Tempered Radical. I am glad that I found this blog because it appears that Bill is an aware teacher who is interested in sharing what he sees and providing interested insight into how schools work and how they can be improved. One of the things that I noticed throughout his blog is that Bill appears to be creating his graphics (like the one below) by drawing it on paper and then scanning it. That is artistic and is not something that we see too much anymore.
So what do you think?
Is this something that you can use when you are working with your teachers, administrators and students? What do you see as you look around your curriculum? Where does it fit on the TIM or SAMR?
Integrating
digital technologies into your curriculum is much more than just adding
a computer to the lesson. Technology must be considered as a tool that
will support learning experiences. It must be selected based upon
pedagogical needs rather than the other way around.
Effective
learning involves challenging learners with situations that are
relevant to their lives and are challenging enough to interest them and
engage them in the learning process. When educators discuss levels of
intellectual challenge, they typically compare higher-order thinking to lower-order thinking. These terms are best described by using Bloom's Taxonomy.
Thinking Blooms
Bloom's
Taxonomy was first published in 1954 when Benjamin Bloom and his
colleagues wanted to create a hierarchy of terms that they could use
when they were describing various types of questions that they might use
on a test. Since then, the taxonomy has taken on a broader meaning
which educators used to also describe educational activities.
In
the 1990s, one of Bloom's students, Lorin Anderson, lead a group of
cognitive psychologists who reconsidered Bloom's taxonomy and reworked
it to reflect 21st century learning. You will notice that the new
taxonomy has changed the static verbs to active verbs by adding "ing" to
the end. They also removed Synthesis and placed Creating on the top.
This
tool has been aligned with 21st Century in many ways. Andrew Churches
in New Zealand has provided a digital perspective where he begins provides
Bloom's Taxonomy with a context and then identifies a number of digital
tools that can be grouped into each level.
Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally.
Churches demonstrates that the Higher-Order Thinking skills are the top
three verbs, Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating. The Lower-Order
Thinking skills are the bottom three verbs, Remembering, Understanding
and Applying.
Kathy Schrock and Samantha Penney have used a more graphical format to align Web 2.0 tools with the new version
of Bloom's Taxonomy. Kathy limits her work to Google tools while
Samantha expands it to a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools. Carefully review
these sites to provide a background for your later assignment.
Is
there any sense in classifying teaching strategies, questions, Web 2.0
tools using an organizer like Bloom's Taxonomy? Can pedagogical
activities actually be restricted to one of 6 classifications? Probably
not. Grouping tools like these are designed to provide vocabulary for
discussions between professionals. Using these classifications I can
distinguish teaching for memorization or developing problem-solving
skills.
Adding Technology to the Mix
Technology
can be used in a learning environment but will it make a difference? It
all depends on HOW technology is used. Like Bloom's Taxonomy,
technology can be integrated in a variety of ways. These may include
teachers who operate at a basic level by using PowerPoint presentations
to support their lecture-driven methods. They also include the teachers
who step back and encourage students to use these tools in innovative
ways to create new projects and experiences.
The
problem has been to find a vocabulary to define these various levels of
integration. Apple Computer sponsored a decade-long research project
entitled Apple Classrooms of the Tomorrow (ACOT). This project involved
providing technology-rich classrooms by filling them with Apple IIgs
computers AND providing one for each of the students' homes (20th
century 1:1 computing.) As they examined the various levels on which
teachers used technology, they identified a 5 stages including: Entry,
Adoption, Adaption, Appropriation, and Innovation. Read the article, What is Effective Integration of Technology, and Does It Make a Difference by Debra Rein.
It is a short article, but it provides a background for the ACOT
Evolution of Thought and Practice. Please note that these levels of
adoption exist in any teaching/learning situation whether it is in
corporate, PK-12 or post-secondary settings.
Another model that is popular in the schools today is the SAMR model. It was developed by Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D. to describe a ladder of implementation that occurs as you integrate technology into your curriculum.
Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D. http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/
Here is a video that describes the four levels of SAMR:
Did it make sense? Would you be able to identify and define the 4 levels of SAMR? If not, here is a Pinterest boardthat I found that is dedicated to SAMR. Did you find anything that better fit your learning style?
How would you match the ACOT 5 stages and the SAMR model? Do they directly link to one another?
The
key to successful integration requires a system to integrate the
research on Learning Environments with what has been learned about
technology adoption. In 2005, the Florida Department of Education created their Technology Integration Matrix (TIM).
This is a matrix that uses a series of 5 steps in technology adoption
that is similar to the ACOT set. It also has a set of desired learning
environment characteristics which include Active, Collaborative, Constructive, Authentic and Goal-Directed.
Go see TIM and play around for a while to see what they have to offer. You will even find some cells with video examples of lessons in a variety of subjects.
You will also want to visit the Arizona flavor of this matrix. It is essentially the same but it has video examples sorted by grade level. NOTE: My students like the Arizona TIM better than the Florida TIM. They have rewritten the descriptions and are easier to understand. They have sharp lesson plans that have been aligned with the Common Core state standards and provide assessments. It is a GREAT resource.
NOTE: I have been looking for such a matrix that displays this in a corporate training format, but to no avail.
Barriers to Technology Integration
Change
is not always easy. Even if an innovation can obviously improve
learning situations, there are a number of things that can get in the
way. In some cases it has to do with institutional barriers that get in
the way. Review (look for the highpoints) an article, Barriers to Adopting Emerging Technologies in Education by Rogers. This article looks at potential problems in the PK-12 as well as the University level schools.
Sometimes
the problem is in the attitudes and belief systems of the teachers.
This is another article which explores the Beliefs and Practices of
teachers in the ACOT study.
YOUR CHALLENGE: Technology integration has many faces. The Entry levels of adoption are not bad to use in the
classroom. Sometimes slideshows are the most efficient way to convey
information. The key is to move deftly along the continuum to ensure
that your learners are engaging into their learning experiences. The key to using the matrix is to identify where your learning activities reside on the TIM. Are you in the Adoption-Collaborative cell? Are you in the Transformation-Authentic cell? This is not a perfect science but it is a way for you to examine what you are doing and provide it a label. Once you have identified what you are doing, you can then look for ways to move it it up the line.
Look at your teaching/learning/experiences and find 5 instances of technology integration in your special
field of interest. You may find these in your classroom, in the room next door, on videos, on
paper or ????? The key is that you consider this important to your field of teaching and it is worth your time to evaluate. NOTE: Do NOT emphasize a technology tool. This challenge
asks you to find an actual teaching/learning experience where a
technology tool is used as part of lesson. The tool is not the center of
this activity but rather what can be done using that tool.
Spend a little time and evaluate it by:
Describing the example including level, subject, intended outcome and process.
Identifying the cell on the TIM into which it would be classified.
Explain why you classified it into that cell. What are the attributes that cause it to fit into that section?
Explain how this
would fit into your world of teaching/learning. How would/could you use
it in your classroom? If you don't have a classroom yet, then place it
into the classroom where you intend to work.
BAM!!!! Take it up a notch.
Now that you know where you are, let's do some traveling.
Select 3 of your examples
and consider how you would reorganize this lesson to move it to another
level. This means that after you have identified the cell where one
specific lesson's activities exist, you will identify changes you could
make in how you are designing the lesson's activities to move it to
another cell that is "Up a notch." You MUST identify the specific
coordinates of the cell where you are moving the lesson.
The Characteristics are not in any sequence, so how would you take it to another characteristic?
The Technology is in a sequence so you will need to move it to the right. Moving it to the right requires you, the teacher, to relinquish some control to your students. It is a process that allows your students to take on greater roles as problem-solvers.
What Should I Do?
Not that you have done this work, what should you do with it? Use it!!! You have made a change in your teaching strategies, so use it.
Want a place to share your ideas? Add them as a comment to this post.
I hope that this is will be the beginning of a series of writings that I will share here and in the future.
Please respond and give me feedback about how you are using the TIM to help you expand your teaching.
