Key Concept 7: Technology Integration Models & Technical Tasks

When we were introduced to various different technology integration models in ET 605 by Dr. McGinn, the model that stuck out to me the most in terms of its utility for the way I think about my instruction and content area was the Technology Integration Matrix created by the Floride Center for Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida, College of Education. Specifically, the idea of a matrix that allowed for flexibility based on the task was very appealing and did not seem overwhelming as even a novice teacher with technology in the classroom could find themselves somewhere on the matrix and be able to plot some easy goals towards to more frequent and deeper levels of technology integration.

For our culminating project in ET 605, my group and I redesigned a middle school science unit to increase the amount of technology in ways that would move a teacher to deeper levels of technology integration according the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) from what the district provided lessons provided. The district provided unit, when it did include any technology, included technology usage at the basic Entry point on the TIM. The activities we modified shifted the lesson activities primarily to the Adaptation level in the Active, Collaborative, Constructive amd Goal-Directed categories. The middle school Enduring Understanding that this unit was focused on, "The fact that matter is composed of atoms and molecules can be used to explain the properties of substances, diversity of materials, states of matter, phase changes, and conservation of matter." speaks to beginning to bridge the macrolevel view of the world to the particulate level view of the world. This level of abstraction is a difficult concept for students at this age, especially since the particles in question are always gonig to be too small to "see" and that makes it difficult for students to understand and accept. The Adaptation-Constructive activity using the PhET simulation on Density is critical in helping students to be able to "see" how particle spacing affects the overall density of materials that they are investigating in a way that a simple hands on density activity like constructing a density column or measuring the density of different metals never could. While the hands on activities are critical in other ways for the development of lab skills and techniques and should not be passed up, supplementing them with the integration of particulate simulations as was done in this unit redesign provides an opportunity for deeper understanding that would otherwise not be possible.

The goal of my Internship experience was to increase the amount of formative assessing in my own classroom and that of my grade level peers, as well as use that information to inform instruction. During the Internship time period, my different courses were in very different spots in the curriculum. I decided to use Socrative primarily with my Honors Chemistry classes because it allowed me the opportunity to embed the reteaching into the questions themselves for the skills based material that I was covering.

My colleagues in English and History preferred the more open format of GoFormative to solicit ideas from all students in a way that was not just yelling out answers or dominating a discussion, and then using that information to guide where class discussions needed to go. My History colleague found this to be extremely helpful in helping students with the writing process as his teaching skill set is more content based and less writing focused, and GoFormative allowed him to see areas where students were struggling without needing to turn in an entire rough draft of a paper.