From substitution to redefinition and everything inbetween

I went to elementary school in a rural town where the school is quite small. There are about 900 people in my home town of Republic, Wa. The playground where we used to have recess is now the only parking lot in town and the building has been abandoned since shortly after I attended there. I remember when I was about 8 years old the city passed a levy that enabled one of the local contractors to build a new elementary school next to the high school in the south side of town. I think of the old school I attended as a metaphor for the technological changes we didn't fully comprehend at the time.

We eventually heard a lot about how technology was changing the way the world did business. That we needed to get as much education or training as possible if we were to succeed in the workforce. Jobs in gold mining--my father's occupation--were drying up. I thought of auto manufacturers as harbingers of the future as they were replacing factory workers with robots. Engineers were the new age's laborers. The future for a technologically unsavvy person might be bleak. But the support students needed to grow and adapt to technological trends were sometimes unavailable to such a small school. The pinnacle of technology at my old school was the overhead projector. I might be dating myself a little but the point bears repeating. Things have changed for better or worse and the classroom is both a test bed and a model for the integration of technology in everyday life.

When my new school was built, there was a significant change in technology inside and outside the classroom. We recorded our school plays on VHS, had simple electronic devices like digital dictionaries, and got lectured about how much time we were wasting playing video games at home. The change felt like a giant leap into the world of technology but looking back, it took years to happen. Today, the change is virtually instantaneous. It was years between the time I first heard about email, and the time I set up my first account. Today, networking and technological literacy are tools of the trade practically anywhere work is done.



Today's students are adept at technological integration. They, as digital natives, see the use or non-use of technology as a sign that their institutions are relevant and worthwhile. We have moved beyond the substitution and augmentation stages in the SAMR model on a macro level. We aren't just using new stuff that replaces old stuff but is essentially the same in function. We are redefining classroom technology and incorporating tasks that are impossible without current technology. If education is to appear relevant and worthwhile to students, our classrooms need to be cutting edge.



We need to redefine standard teaching methods to apply student's abilities with things like social media to improve their learning. There is an old saying that remains ironically pertinent: "change or die." We need to assert ourselves. We need to wander in the chaos our students experience and glean the best and most applicable uses of technology in the hope that our students will change the world and solve problems we aren't even aware of yet.