Technology Integration and Educational Change

Technology Integration in Schools and Classrooms

An Introduction to Technology Integration from Edutopia. See also How To Integrate Technology

Cajon Valley Union School District Interactive Video Profile (with YouTube embedded videos) from the Digital Learning Day website.

Technology innovations such as CCT (Connecting Classroom Technology) have been demonstrated to positively impact student achievement when integrated into a variety of classroom contexts."

"However, teachers are unlikely to implement a new instructional practice unless they perceive the practical value of the reform. Practicality consists of three constructs:

• Congruence with teacher's values and practice;
• Instrumentality-compatibility with the existing school structures;
• Cost/benefits-whether the reward is worth the effort.

Toward a Typology of Technology-Using Teachers in the "New Digital Divide", Teachers College Record (2018)

Researchers found four statistically significant subgroups of technology-using teachers:

• Dexterous (24.4%)
• Evaders (22.2%)
• Assessors (28.4%)
• Presenters (24.8%)

Technology-using teachers are not a monolithic group or are randomly distributed across school settings

Low-income schools are more likely to have teachers who use technology in less meaningful ways.

In another, earlier study:

The experiences of three science teachers in their first year implementing CCT are compared with matched-pair mathematics teachers. Findings suggest that despite some differences in specific uses and purposes for CCT, the integration of CCT into regular classroom practice is quite similar in mathematics and science classrooms," wrote M.L. Shirley and colleagues, University of Louisville.

Shirley, M. L. (2011). The Practicality Of Implementing Connected Classroom Technology In Secondary Mathematics And Science Classrooms. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 9(2): 459-481.

SAMR Model of Technology Integration

• Substitution: teachers replace a current practice with a new technology
• Augmentation: new technology's use gradually expands as it proves effective and efficient
• Modification: teachers discover new, unplanned for uses of the technology
• Redefinition: the technology is used in more innovative ways, transforming learning for students

8 Examples of Transforming Lessons Through the SAMR Cycle

Informate and Automate

Informate refers to times when technological innovation results in fundamental changes in people's activities and organizational behavior.

Automate refers to times when technological innovation creates change, but fundamental patterns remain relatively unchanged.

The term informating comes from Shoshona Zuboff's book, In the Age of the Smart Machine, published in 1989 at the beginning of the computer revolution when companies struggled with the integration of computers into business practices. Informating is "a process of continual learning that companies use to improve products or services and to enhance their production, distribution, or marketing." (Goldman, D. Why Managers Resist Machines, The New York Times, February 7, 1988).

A more recent book that makes similar points is Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Works. Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, & Michael B. Horn. McGraw-Hill, 2010.

• The authors explain that some changes in technologies are step-by-step improvements while others are big breakthroughs or “disruptive innovations”.
• They propose we should use technologies to reinvent the way that we design teaching and learning environments not to promote status-quo learning.

Examples where technology infomates rather than automates people's experiences.

• iCritic, a computer booth at the Barrington Stage Company theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where theater-goers can create their own reviews of plays and stage shows while also watching reviews done by other patrons. The slogan "You Say It, We Play It" and the opportunity to express one's opinions electronically changes the theater-going experience for audiences.
• Subway riders in South Korea do their grocery shopping while waiting for their train.

As you examine the use of technology in society, imagine how tools you have seen or heard of informate or disrupt conventional procedures, processes, or environments. Explain what they do and how they create change.

Technology Integration Matrix from the University of South Florida shows what happens at the five stages of integration: Entry, Adoption, Adaptation, Infusion, and Transformation.

Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World(2012). U.S. Government Office of Educational Technology.

Burlington High School in Massachusetts receives Apple Distinguished School Award for 2012-2013, one of 87 schools honored nationwide for technology integration.

Digital Divide and the Participation Gap

• Latest Data indicates that nearly 95 percent of all young people have access to some digital technology (White: 96%; Black: 94%; Asian: 98%, Latino: 96%)
• White and Asian youth are more likely to own a desktop or laptop
• Black and Latino youth are more likely to own a handheld device that connects to the Internet.
• The digital divide is not a matter of access to the Internet. It is a matter of differences in the mode or speed of connection as well as access to the latest devices and tools for learning. (Participatory Politics: New Media and Youth Political Action, 2012, p. 20)
• Why Race and Culture Matter: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms, T. C. Howard, Teachers College Press, 2010.

For more information, see Exploring the Digital Nation: Computer and Internet Use at Home from the Department of Commerce (November, 2011).

Needy Families in Florida Offered Internet Access. In Miami/Dade County, 72 percent of the poorest families in this Florida county’s neediest neighborhoods didn’t have internet service at home in 2008; children who qualify for free or reduced lunch can sign up for low-cost, high-speed internet access, buy a computer at a discount, and take free digital literacy training.

Comcast Announces $10 Web Access for Low-Income Familiesfrom NPR.

The plan called Internet Essentials will be available anywhere Comcast offers Internet services. Families get Internet services for under $10 a month, literacy training, and a voucher toward a new, under $200 computer. A family of four would need to be making just over $29,000 a year (in 2011) to qualify.

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT2)

Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier from PBS.

"I Saw the Future and It Works": A Visit to a Hybrid School from Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice.

Flipped Classrooms

The Power of Flipped Learning by Joe Hirsch on YouTube (November 2016)

What is a Flipped Classroom? (Updated for 2012) from Edudemic.

The article identifies the following advantages and disadvantages:

A math teacher explains Why I Flipped My Classroom on YouTube. See also What a Flipped Classroom Looks Like that shows flipped teaching at a high school.

7 Things You Should Know about Flipped Classrooms from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (February 2012).

Flipped Learning Network

There's More Than One Way to Flip a Classroom discusses strategies for individualizing student learning and changing classroom structures.

Are In-Person Lectures More Effective Than Taped Ones? discusses the differences between being physically present during a lecture and watching it later. There are advantages and disadvantages to each mode and this can be a great topic to discuss with future teachers.

'Flipped Classrooms' in North Texas Turn Traditional Teaching on its Head from the Dallas Morning News, September 27, 2012.

How to Create a Flipped Video Lecture for At-Home Study describes instructional innovation at Clintondale High School outside Detriot, the nation's first all-flipped instruction high school (from PBS NewsHour, December 5, 2013).

One-to-One Laptop and iPad Programs

(see also Chapter 1: e-Teaching)

Use in Schools

14 Tips to Make BYOD Programs Work for You, THE Journal (January 19, 2016)

One-to-One Computing: Five Critical Questions

5 Smart Ways to Deploy Tablets from Harvard Education Letter (March/April 2014)

21st Century Teaching and Learning Study: Baseline Evaluation Report from Boston College looks at laptops in the Natick Massachusetts Public Schools

Research Says. . . One-to-One Laptop Programs are No Silver Bullet (February, 2011)

The Best 1:1 Device is a Good Teacher, from Edutopia (July, 2013).

Public Schools in Fresno, Calif., to Provide Tablet Computers to Students (September 24, 2013) discusses how that school district is providing 15,000 students with their own tablet computer.

Apple Wins $30 million iPad Contract from LA School District, June 19, 2013. The nation's second largest school district will be providing an iPad for every student.

6 Pillars of a 1:1 Initiative from SmartBlog on Education.

TabletsTrump Laptops in High School Classrooms from U. S. News & World Report, August 3, 2012.

San Diego Unified School District provides 26,000 iPads for students in 2012-2013. For more, see that city'si21 Interactive Classroom Initiative

Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton, Massachusetts is providing iPads for all its students in 2012-2013.

The iPad Initiative: Did It Make the Grade? discusses the introduction of 1000 iPads at Burlington High School in Burlington, Massachusetts. The school found the following:

• Introducing iPads is an evolutionary process; an organization cannot go from banning cellphones and other mobile technologies to allowing iPads at once because policies and cultural norms must be given time to change.
• Parent Tech Nights sponsored by the school helped inform families.
• Eliminating history, English and foreign language computer labs was one way to readjust school budgets to pay for mobile devices. Hiring fewer substitute teachers also saved money to use for iPads.

1:1 Learning is a website from the Grafton, Massachusetts Public Schools designed to document that district's implementation of a one-to-one iPad program in 2012-2103.

Seton Hill University, a small Catholic university located in Greensburg, Penn., said today that it plans to give each of its full-time students a new iPad beginning this fall. About 2,100 students attend Seton Hill, so at the lowest retail price point of $499 (and not factoring in any possible bulk discounts) it would amount to just over a $1 million initial investment.

iPads invade the computer lab. Bridget McCrea, THE Journal, March 9, 2011. "No fixed desktop computers" Hawaii Preparatory School, just a "stack of iPads that students grab as they enter the school.

Getting Attention in the Laptop Classroom, an article by Jamie McKenzie in From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal (2008) discusses strategies for integrating laptops in classroom instruction.

North Carolina School Engages Tech Generation with Digital Learning describes a school where every student is using technology every day.

One-to-One Computing in Maine

Click here for the website of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI)

The Middle School One-to-One Laptop Program: The Maine Experience (2011).

Former Governor Angus King on Lessons from Maine's 1-to-1 Laptop Initiative on YouTube.

See also A One-to-One Laptop Program for Maine's Middle Schools

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Programs

2013 Results from the SIIA Vision K-20 Survey: Executive Summary (June 2013) from the Software & Information Industry Association.

• 70% of elementary schools and 83% of secondary schools expect to implement BYOD programs in the next five years.

Studies on Effectiveness of iPads and Tablets

Dispelling the Myths about 1:1 Classrooms, Andrew Marcinek, Edutopia, October, 2012.

Bebell, D., Dorris, S., & Muir, M. (2012). Emerging results from the nation's first kindergarten implementation of iPads. Research Summary.

Chiong, C., & Shuler, C. (2010). Learning: Is there an app for that? Investigations of young children's usage and learning with mobile devices and apps. New York: Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.

Motion Math In-Class. Study shows that the iPad app, Motion Math, improves children's knowledge of fractions and attitudes toward math.

Microsoft Press Pass. (2000, September). Research finds laptop learning yield better students and better teachers through anytime, anywhere access. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2000/sept00/LaptopPR.mspx

Topic for Discussion

One-Bit Internet: The iPad is/isn't a Content Creation Device. In this blog post, educator Richard Gaywood reviews the debate over iPads as content consumption and content creation devices. Gaywood notes that iPads are great for content consumption such as reading books, watching videos, and browsing websites. Content creation is another matter, although it helps to think in terms of microcreation and macrocreation. Microcreation such as writing blog posts and using social media can be easier than macrocreation of writing lengthy articles or managing complex data sets.

How do the students in your class see micro and macro creation on iPads and other tablets?

Democratic Teaching and Democratic Classrooms

For a current perspective, see Democratic Classrooms by Marcos Torres on YouTube.

For an historical perspective, see Practicing Democracy in the Classroom from Encyclopedia Britannica Films (1953) on YouTube.

For an way to merge community service and technology leadership, see link to the National Day of Civic Hacking (June 1-2, 2013).

Collaboration and Grant Writing for Teachers

Get Nerdy: Be Happy, The Power of Virtual Community by Massachusetts teacher Kevin Hodgson.

For an overview, see What is Crowdsourcing? from YouTube

DonorsChoose.org

Managing Your Digital Reputation

Creating an Intentional Web Presence: Strategies for Every Educational Technology Professional, P.R. Lowenthal, et. al., Tech Trends (2016)