What is Meaningful Technology Integration?

It is a new era and a new time in education in which technology plays a big part in it. Some fear it and others welcome it. Those who welcome it are in the right path because education has evolved and teachers need to evolve too. Our students are not the same of 50 years ago. Our students communicate in new ways and in order to succeed in their learning achievement, we need to learn their language.

What is Technology Integration? In the Edutopia video “An introduction to technology integration” Sal Kahn defines it as: “Using whatever resources you have, to the best of your abilities”. Sometimes we feel that because we are not on the top of our game with all the new technology that is out there, we cannot use it in the classroom, but we forget, as teachers, we are life-long learners and there is nothing more satisfying for students and teachers to have the opportunity to learn together. 

Azul Terronez, in his TedX talk “What makes a good teacher great” tells us that students think one of the factors that makes a good teacher great is a teacher who loves to learn. As teachers, we are becoming not just the “possessors of knowledge” as in the past but also facilitators of learning. Kids love technology and they can sometimes learn how to use it quicker and more efficiently than we can, and if we provide those opportunities combined with face-to-face instruction, their learning experience can be more joyful and engaging. Terronez reminds us that students tell us everyday what they need, but we do not listen; when we finally listen, we have the opportunity to communicate and understand.

There are many arguments against technology integration and sometimes people refer to our old pedagogy as an important base of education and how technology is replacing this foundation. Vygotsky, one of our main influences in pedagogy told us about this integration many years ago, not knowing exactly what tools we were going to have in the future. Churcher, K. A., Downs, E., & Tewksbury, in their journal article: “ “Friending: Vygotsky Article Analysis in Application to Educational Psychology” show exactly how we can integrate these valid theories of education with our new technology. The study based itself on the social constructivism theory of Vygotsky and it used two social media platforms: Facebook and a Wiki. The article talks about how social media as a pedagogical tool should be considered and, how social constructivism can be paired with social media. A description of what Social Constructivism is also included in the article in relation to co-construction of knowledge in the environment. It is important for practicing teachers to know about these findings because the use of technology and social media is something that is happening whether we like it or not. We cannot pretend education can be untouched by all these changes. As technology does not re-place teachers, teachers need to re-place technology in the classroom, meaning placing it in the correct manner. Young people are developing in different rates because they are being exposed to more information than ever before and social media has become their main tool of communication. Many teachers would ask themselves: Why not use social media as a pedagogical tool? Now, the real question is how to use social media as a pedagogical tool and, through these studies we can learn exactly how we can take a theory, which has been applied in teaching for so many years, and apply it to our new technologies. We study Vygotsky’s theory with rigor and as practicing teachers; we need to be aware on how it is being applied.

It is not even a choice to integrate technology in the classroom anymore. The ISTE standards for students require students to be empowered learners, digital citizens, knowledge constructors, innovative designers, computational thinkers, creative communicators, and global collaborators. These are fundamentals standards and one of the biggest challenges is for students to become digital citizens. It is so easy to make a mistake in the virtual world and these mistakes can many times be more damaging than the ones that happen face-to-face because they stay in the Internet forever! As teachers and parents, we need to learn how to live it, teach it and more importantly, manage it!

So far, all this integration seems to be positive, so what are some of the down sides? Through a Facebook interaction, I asked my friends and fellow teachers what they thought about integrating technology in the classroom. Some of them said that they found pros and cons. Cons such as a decline on students’ ability to read paper books and lower quality calligraphy. Lindsey said, “technology in the classroom needs to take age in consideration”. My brother, Dunny Potter, has a direct interaction with this integration of technology in education because he tutors home-schooled high school students who do all their classes online. He has found that most students just try to jump from assignment to assignment having as their goal how fast and how many shortcuts they can take to turn in projects, homework and other assignments quickly and painless. He feels that a lot of learning is being lost in this process and when they come to him for tutoring, he finds himself putting out the pen and paper and explaining things in a rather old fashioned manner and students achieve better this way. As he put it: “It has to be the right balance. I believe writing in paper has power because it engages the hands and the eyes. Typing is not the same, it requires more mechanical coordination”. He also pointed out how reading from a screen has a different process than reading from a book. This shows how we cannot let technology simply take over, teachers are still one of the most important drivers of education and the ones that need to figure out how to make the best use of the wonderful tools technology is giving us each day. Mark Van Doren, show us in his blog: “A Teaching Life” how social media can help teachers network ideas, share their experiences and ultimately, help each other in this journey.

This new era brings us new challenges and new tools that can facilitate our job and can empower our students be more engaged and can relate the way they enjoy themselves with learning. If learning is not fun, our young ones are going to be discouraged easily and bury themselves in their video games. Technology integration needs to ultimately be the right amount of face-to-face interaction and digital media. Let us not fear it, but embrace and utilize it to everyone’s benefit.

I believe that technology integration is necessary and fundamental for our students of today. It is a new world where teachers need to make the most our of what is offered to us taking into account that anything in extreme is a bad idea. I feel that communication has increased between teachers and families because of technology. We can email newsletters, quick messages, videos and so many other things that were unable to do in the past. Back in the day, much of the interaction between teachers and students was done only through conferences and sometimes open house. Nowadays, we can do so many things using technology! Kids can do their own presentations, videos, songs, art work and so many other things that before were either too hard or expensive to do. I would have bee so happy to have all the technology that is available right now when I was little because I would have in my possession so many of my creations. I used to have a dance group and I was one of the main choreographers and we really wanted to have someone record all of our choreographies but it was so expensive! We were unable to do it and they only live in memory. I think that I would have a good balance between using technology and using paper and pen. I still believe that calligraphy is important, reading from paper books is valuable and for some lessons, the old way is the way to go. I think my strategy is to take one lesson and present in many ways allowing students to understand it form different points of view and also , by giving them the opportunity to present their learning in all ways, from old cardboard posters to websites. I also have to keep in mind  that not all my students have computers or internet access at home and I cannot expect homework to alway be done using technological tools. Last, but not least, digital citizens hot has to be lived and practiced over and over again. The internet is a beautiful but a dangerous arena and we need to make sure ours kids have all the gear needed to succeed in it. 

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Resources:

Churcher, K. A., Downs, E., & Tewksbury, D. (2014). "Friending" Vygotsky: A Social Constructivist Pedagogy of Knowledge Building through Classroom Social Media Use. Journal Of Effective Teaching, 14(1), 33-50.

Doren, M.V. A Teaching Life. The Art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery” Web blog https://ateachinglifedotcom.wordpress.com/

[Edutopia] (2012, December 12) An Introduction to Technology Integration. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d59eG1_Tt-Q

ISTE standards for Students. https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016

Potter, Wendy. Personal interaction on Facebook’s wall. April 1,2017 at 1:54 p.m.

Terronez, A. [TEDx Talks] (2017, February 2) What makes a good teacher great? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrU6YJle6Q4