Count Me In

I am really excited about using technology in my classroom.  Admittedly, technology has never been something that really excited me.  If I’m totally honest, I have been reluctant adopter of much of the tech that comes out.  Yet, I recognize the necessity of harnessing technology to meet the needs of today’s students.  I watched some great videos of lessons on farm-to-table concepts using Minecraft.  A fabulous example can be found here.  It was amazing!  What a fun, engaging, and technologically appropriate way for kids to learn.  This is the kind of thing that I can get excited about. 

The SAMR model will be a guide for me.  I like this graphic.  For me, it perfectly captures how I will use technology in my classroom to broaden and deepen learning. 

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I, of course, want to use current technology like document cameras and smart boards, because, really, overheads and chalkboards?!  I am so above that *files nails*.  But what I truly want is to use technology to modify and redesign learning.  Technology can bring even dry concepts to life.  For instance, interacting with kids in other regions or parts of the world can bring vibrancy to lessons on history, social studies, science, or even English Language Arts.  As another example, virtual reality can allow kids to “visit” battlefields, ruins, or historical sites miles and miles away.   Using VR in this way would meet either the modification or redefinition category.  It is highly unlikely that I could take my class to visit Gettysburg on a field trip.  Yet, with the assistance of technology, my students could experience this battlefield in a previously unattainable way.  How cool is that?!  This may, perhaps, inspire them to future learning in areas that are of particular interest to them.  We may be inspiring the youngest archaeologists and historians right in our classrooms.  Who knows.  The possibilities really are endless. 

Doesn't this look like more fun

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than this

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In the end, I want my students to learn.  And to be excited about learning.  And to be lifelong learners.  I was a lucky kid.  I loved to learn, just for learning's sake.  I found things of interest everywhere I looked.  I know that not everyone is the same.  Part of my job is to hook students, to make the learning interesting.  Because, seriously, why learn something that holds no interest to you?  Technology is one way to get students involved.  It allows endless ways of learning information, of evaluating it, of synthesizing it, and of extrapolating from it.  I want in on that.