Evaluating and Integrating Educational Technology
Hello fellow bloggers and welcome back to week 5 of my math
blog!
This weeks focus was on
evaluating and integrating educational technology. In an ever increasing
digital world, it is important to integrate digital technology in our
classrooms to allow students to use and expand on their knowledge. Implementing
digital tools in our math classes can help elevate lessons and allow students
to be engaged in the content. That being
said, in order to maximize the usage of the tool, we must be using it correctly
and to its full advantage.
When
looking for and choosing educational technology, it is a good idea to use the
Bunz Model of Technology Integration and Evaluation.
Going through the model we have Stage 1: Create a Professional Learning
Community. This is an important stage for it allows for a better chance of
success going through professional development opportunities together for
collaboration. Incorporating a professional development creates a positive
result. In Stage 2: Think Pedagogy First, we are looking at what we want out
students to know or be able to do by the end of the unit as well as the
teaching strategies, and pedagogical decisions that best align with those
results. Stage 3: Determine the
purpose, allows the teacher to identify this purpose before selecting an
educational technology tool. Digital tools should be used in a meaningful way
and at carefully determined times in order to enhance the learning experience.
In Stage 4: Determine Functionality,
teachers need to filter out tools that will not help them achieve their goals
or purpose. Some questions to consider would be looking at what functions the
tool has in order to help achieve the desired results and the functions that
the digital tool has in order to help achieve the purpose. With Stage 5: Search, Find, and Evaluate,
there are two evaluation criteria. 1. Can this digital tool be used in my
school and classroom appropriately? 2. Will it help my students and I achieve
the curriculum standards, learning goals, or purpose? In Stage 6: Plan Integration, you can work to align the functionality
of the tool to the pedagogy, curriculum expectations, learning goals, and
purpose. Lastly we have Stage 7: Go
For It! In this stage you are going to test it out, be a researcher and check
in with your professional learning community, use it and meet with your PLC to
discuss how it went.
In
an activity in class today, we followed the 7 stages with a tool of our own. I
decided to focus on Data Management with collecting data and displaying
information on graphs. In the lesson, students will be working in small teams
to choose a question and survey their classmates to collect data. The teams
would then create a bar graph of their data, analyze the results and share
their findings. The digital tool that I found could be great for this activity
was Pixie. Pixie
is a creativity software for students to use to share their ideas and
understanding through a combination of text, voice narration and images.
Creating with technology appeals to diverse
learners, and encourages thinking, creativity, and communication skills. As a
teacher, you have a higher chance of the technology tool having a positive
impact on student achievement if:
· The tool allows for exploration of concepts
· The tool provides an opportunity for users to
create content
· The use of the tool is tied to curriculum
standards and learning goals
· It is used in a blended learning format with
the teacher as a facilitator
Pixie allows for all of this, which is
why I think it would be a great digital tool for students to use.
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