SAMR Reflection

The idea of using technology in the classroom is new to this girl. I was in high school—late in high school at that—when the earliest Smartboards were being introduced. And even then, we were using them almost just as we would have used a normal whiteboard. But I love the idea of Modification and Redefinition levels of lesson plans. One great way to do this would be when discussing the conflict in the Middle East in a World History class. The students would complete a basic search about the history of the conflict, and compile research questions. We could then work on Google Maps of Google Earth to identify the location(s) of the conflict(s) over the years. Finally, we could reach out to the community and see if there are any locals that come from the Middle East and might be able to lend their ideas firsthand. We could then reach out to the web (using a hashtag or a website such as Coetails) and see if there is anyone in the Middle East willing to discuss how history has impacted them. The beginning of this would be simple substitution and augmentation, but working with locations and coordinates on Google Earth begins to me modification, and reaching out to those who the conflict has directly affected them would bring in Redefinition.