The biggest lesson I took from our fifth design principle (The Means Principle) is that it is not about technology so much as it is about good lesson design. Technology should only be implemented into a design after “mindful consideration” in regards to both the “cognitive and social” aspects of your lesson as well as your “content and learning activities.”
A technology may encourage creativity and collaboration and be really engaging to students, but that doesn’t mean it is right for your learning goals.
The biggest paradigm shift for me was understanding where to start. You don’t pick a technology you like and then work backwards to build a lesson around it. You have to start all the way at the beginning, with your design ABCS. Once you have your lesson design - your authentic problem, learning goals and activities, etc. then you can analyze what needs you and your students will have based on those goals. After you know what your students need, you can then begin vetting technologies that satisfy those needs.
The technologies that you choose for your Background Building activities may be completely different than the technologies necessary for your Construction activities. But because you started with a design, all technologies serve a purpose: to meet the needs of your learners.
Teaching with technology is, after all, still teaching. And good teaching always starts with a strong design.
Hey Laura! You did a great job of summarizing what we learned in class last week. I especially liked how you stated that a certain technology may be encouraging, creative, facilitate collaboration, and engaging, but that doesn’t mean it is right for your learning goals. I think that most times we (as teachers) decide that we want to incorporate a certain learning goal into our lessons and will plan the lesson based on that. It’s almost as bad as planning a lesson based on a pre-created assessment!
ReplyDeleteGreat reflection Laura! I agree often times we get caught up with using the new technology when it really might not fit with our goals. When we find good pieces of technology that accent our goals, it makes for better learning for our students.
ReplyDeleteI responded to your comment already on my post but I feel I can talk about the same thing here. A lot of times I find the best technology for a project isn't a computer but can be as simple as index cards and scissors or printer paper and scotch tape
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