Teaching that Touches the World

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3oeyxg


http://internet.savannah.chatham.k12.ga.us/district/AcademicAffairs/it/Pages/SAMR.aspx

Today we learned about SAMR, the illustration with the man who begins on land and moves deeper underwater is my favorite way that SAMR is demonstrated. As you can see substitution is moving onto the water, but it is still a surface level use of technology. Augmentation is moving under the water, by snorkeling, but is still not at a deep transforming use of technology. Modification is deeply under the water, with the illustration of a scuba diver representing the beginning of transformation with redesign. Lastly, the submarine shows us the depth of the ocean we can reach with using technology for new tasks that would have been impossible without the technology being used, which is known as redesign. The reason I included the Skype picture is because a lot of the examples we heard in class that was redefinition based included the skyping technology. Jeff mentioned two stories, both of which included Skype. One was about a student who was going to Skype someone from NASA, in another story they gained a perspective about local news from a woman living in Saudi Arabia (if I remember correctly). These were both very good and cool examples of the instant connections we can make around the world that would not be possible without the technological advancement of video calls. Another story that proves Skype is a technological tool that helps lessons reach redefinition was in one of the example videos we watched to see how people around the world are using technology in the classroom. I watched many videos, including kids using YouTube to teach other kids and digital essays. However, my favorite idea was using Skype to create global book clubs. This was such an empowering idea because a couple children were formed as part of a group in one class and then they would Skype the other half of their group who resided in a classroom in a different country. The coolest part about this is that the global groups got to choose what to speak about regarding the book in their groups, and this helps both sides gain a global perspective on a myriad of topics while simply talking about a book they both read. Such a cool idea that I would like to implement in my classroom!