When faced with the challenge of infusing technology into my classroom (even though I would consider myself fairly tech savvy) there are barriers I face. Four of those barriers are:
1. Time.
As a first year teacher, I quickly realized time was my worst enemy. When
infusing technology, it became even more difficult. Technology in the classroom
always led to a wonderful lesson, but it forced me to make up lost time
elsewhere due to how long it took me to teach the technology AND the lesson.
2. My
own competency. There are so many wonderful tools out there to infuse
technology and I probably only know how to use about 2 percent of them. It is hard to teach something you are not sure how to use. Even though I
have no trouble functioning with technology, there is so much out there it is impossible to know everything.
3. Student
success. It is so easy to see whether or not a student understands a topic
through a quiz, a group project, a discussion, or an assignment. Those are all
the ways I was told whether or not I “got” something in school. It is scary now
to think we need to give students alternatives to meeting assessment needs.
What if they are REALLY great with technology and have NO idea what the CBA
covers. It takes a lot of effort to make sure those two things are
consistent.
4. Relinquishing
control. All through my schooling and student teaching, the teacher has
control. When infusing technology I give that control to the students. We are encouraged to give students the responsibility and control to facilitate their learning through means of technology, and if you are a slight control freak (like me) that is very frightening!
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ReplyDeleteIf only we had about 8 more hours in the day for planning! Have you considered teaching the app or technology during your computer lab time or using part of your lab time as curriculum time too? Every day new technology comes out and there is no way to keep up with it and evaluate if it actually would support learning. Try to focus on only three new apps this next year and have the students become proficient in those. Assessing students actual attainment of a concept is extremely difficult when it is problem or project based learning... I would recommend always following up a unit/lesson with a short formative assessment. How often are your tech infused lessons in a group setting? This may help with the control factor, I am a major control freak, I want to know exactly what everyone is doing and if they are on task... group/partners helped me monitor the students use of the technology.
ReplyDeleteYou are really gifted at reflection! GREAT blog post!