When I think of integrating technology into my own classroom, my head begins to spin. It seems that everyday there is a new tablet, phone, app, or tool coming out to better "integrate technology in the classroom". My reservations about technological integration maybe due to some of my previous experiences with it. As I was going through the education system, I had very few teachers who even dared to bring in any outside resources let alone technological resources. My sophomore year in college I got my first taste technology in the classroom in the form of a 1:1 classroom. I was taking an "Applied Childhood Development" class and every student got there own iPad for the semester. (And I was stoked!) I am about as tech-savy as the average elementary student, I can work the internet, email, a few apps and a few word processing and organization tools. I definitely am not able to use the various forms of technology up to their full potential. Therefore, when I found out that I was now enrolled in a 1:1 classroom with iPads I was very excited to expand my technology skills.
HOWEVER, IT WAS A DISASTER.
Not to talk bad about the class, and I am taking into consideration the fact that WE (teachers included) are all learning the bumps that technology sometimes can have, but it was just not done right. As I mentioned in my previous post, the iPads literally came with 10+ pages of apps with no instruction of how to use any of them. While I know that exploration of how new technology works can provide good learning; 10+ pages of apps is a little overwhelming. In terms of the usage of the technology in the classroom, it turned into every student surfing the internet/Pinterest as opposed to paying attention. This scenario, I fear, is more common than not and the students are bored. This experience has really tainted my view of 1:1 classrooms and technology in general in the classroom.
soshable.com
To me, technology is all about saving time, not taking more away from me. Imagine if i actually looked at all those apps on that iPad; I would never have a life. Additionally, technology is supposed to make things more fun, in turn, integrating technology in your classroom is supposed to make learning more fun. At this point in my life, I thought that technological integration in the classroom hadn't been integrated properly yet. There were just a lot of teachers with a lot a technology that they wanted to use, some more successful than others. And then it all changed when I met Dr. Lodge.
I am a teaching fellow and by far my favorite forum that I have attended was on flipping the classroom with Dr. Lodge. The main idea of flipping the classroom is to re-engage students through technology, which to me, is a perfect way to blend the abundance of technology that we have accumulated in our classrooms and educating our students. Additionally, with all the time the teachers and students save by learning the basics of the unit at home, this allows more creativity and flexibility in the lesson plans for the teachers, which I hope in turn will encourage teachers to better integrate technology (possibly even re-visit the 1:1 model again). It is as if this flipped model, in my eyes any way could help spark and inspire teachers to integrate technology in their classrooms.
YouTube - by Pocketlodge
This model of "lecturing" as "homework" and actually learning/teaching in class (as opposed to managing) is probably my favorite model that I have seen so far. I have done a few "mini flips" on my own but I am especially curious to see how effectively this model is integrated for myself. If you follow Dr. Lodge's blog or site there are several teachers and even videos who rave about the success they have had with the flipped classroom model.
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