Thinking About Technology in Education:
1. The Focus Remains on Learning

Technology is, of course, not an end in itself. We value technological tools such as iPads, Chromebooks, MacBooks, etc. because of how they can help our students learn. Part of the appeal is that they can accomplish traditional tasks in digital ways, perhaps increasing efficiency in the classroom. But we hope that technology will also go beyond that function, and allow us to teach in new ways and allow students to access more information, evaluate the sources of that information, and then think about and use that information in new ways, to do new things. 

There are some potentially helpful academic models out there (such as TPCK and SAMR) that attempt to explain how technology fits into the larger picture of education. These can be useful for reflective purposes and will be discussed briefly below, but the essential starting point for exploring uses of technology in education is to recall the reason we are interested in using these tools in the first place: to promote and improve learning outcomes. Krista Moroder created an excellent image to summarize this foundational understanding. 

Image by Krista Moroder: http://www.edtechcoaching.org/2013/11/ed-tech-frameworks-why-i-dont-use-tpack.html

The last line is particularly helpful to keep in mind: "Great teaching hasn't changed. The toolbox has." Even though the article by Moroder is actually about why she doesn't explain the details about the TPCK and SAMR frameworks to teachers, we will nevertheless do so below. Seen from the perspective of her visual above, both of them can be effective tools in approaching the use of education in the teaching and learning process.

2. TPCK: It takes content AND pedagogy AND technology

But what ARE we trying to get students to learn? It will probably be content knowledge, core skills or (quite likely) a combination of these aims, in the form of state or Common Core standards. Technology should serve the aim of helping students learn the content and skills that the class is designed to impart. At the same time, pedagogy (teaching strategies and methods) has always been critical to helping students achieve learning goals. With technology, it still is. Taking a previously weak, unengaging or ineffective lesson and digitizing it does not, of course, magically improve it. Teaching still involves taking knowledge about content and skill standards and knowledge about pedagogy, and using both to select the best teaching approaches to enable learning for all students. "Great teaching hasn't changed," as Krista Moroder put it. But now you may have access (all the time, or some of the time) to devices that can be used to help students learn. This can sometimes feel overwhelming: there are so many web sites, apps, services, devices, but very little time to learn them. And you may not be a tech whiz in the first place. The good news is this: You know content and you know pedagogy! Now, you can learn how to add technology to the mix, in support of these aims and approaches. 

Take a look at this classic image of TPCK (sometimes called T-PACK):

There is a ton of things going on in this image, but the key thing to look at is the very center, which is labeled "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge" (hence, TPCK). While some take exception to the three areas of pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge and technological knowledge being equal in size (and perhaps, therefore, in importance), the main takeaway is this: As we employ technology in our lessons, it is no replacement for sound content knowledge aims or pedagogical strategies. It is the fusion of the three that will produce the most effective lessons utilizing technology. Will we achieve this all the time? Please. We're teachers, not gods. But can we approach lessons with the aim of integrating the three aspects into our planning? Actually, yes, we can do that. 

Now, let's say you've been using technology in your classroom and you are in the mood to reflect on how it's going . . . Is your use of technology making learning more efficient? Is it actually making it more effective? Is it opening up students to new ways of learning and demonstrating learning? If these are the questions you pose to yourself in your idle moments (I know, "What are those?"), do we have an acronym for you . . . 

3. SAMR: A reflection tool that might inspire you to use tech to transform your teaching

Image by Jonathan Brubaker: http://techtipsedu.blogspot.com/2013/11/samr-model-metaphor-mistakes.html

If you are brand new to teaching with technology, it probably isn't necessary to go into the full details of SAMR. The concept will become more useful to you as you use tech in your class and reflect on how you have used it so far and then consider the ways you would like to employ it in the future to advance student learning. If that day HAS arrived for you, welcome to the SAMR Club! 

SAMR is a pedagogical model for incorporating technology into education in such as way that it transforms teaching and learning. It was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura and encompasses four levels (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition). The clever graphic above (created by teacher Jonathan Brubaker) reimagines it being applied to coffee. There are some potential misunderstandings with SAMR. Some people think it means that substitution (e.g, students writing a paper using a cloud-based word processor instead of writing it by hand) is a BAD teaching approach because it is the lowest level of technology integration into learning. But it is NOT bad. Coffee, by itself, isn't bad either. However, let's say you have a cart with iPads or MacBooks or Chromebooks for every student in the class. If, after teaching with it awhile, the only thing you have done is to have students perform the exact same tasks in a directly digital equivalent way, then you might reflect upon whether there are additional ways the devices could used to strengthen students' learning in your class. And when you decide to reflect upon that, there will be boatloads of links to click (just down below) and a YouTube video with the actual creator of SAMR, Dr. Ruben Puentedura. Check it out:

To be honest, there are widely varying interpretations of what constitutes a Modification level use of technology in learning, and what is Redefinition, and so on. We have seen examples listed as redefinition (mind mapping software) that we think would be better classified as substitution (after all, you can draw mind maps on paper, right?) or augmentation (there are some nifty features in some of these programs that expand what students can do with mind maps). Furthermore, the reality is that you are not going to be teaching every unit, much less every lesson, with Modification or Redefinition lessons, as these will take imagination, experimentation and, most of all, TIME to develop. But it can be inspiring to think about - with peers or with your instructional coaches - how you COULD create lessons that work on a level of Modification or Redefinition. And we feel that is one of the best uses of the SAMR model. It promotes thinking about how we are using technology to help students learn - and that, after all, is the aim.

More links about SAMR:

Kathy Schrock has a web site filled with SAMR resources, including tons of videos (scroll down the page)

"A Guide for Bringing SAMR to iPads": https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-02-06-a-guide-for-bringing-the-samr-model-to-ipads (Note: actually applies to ALL devices)

TTSD Digital Resource Menu

What it is: A menu of digital resources searchable by audience, subject, device etc.
Link: TTSD Digital Resource Menu

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Formative

Great for: Formative assessment.
Best use case: Every student in class has a device (1:1 MacBooks, or iPads, or Chromebooks), BUT students CAN respond on their smartphones, so teachers without 1:1 carts could also use the service if they are comfortable with students using smartphones for a directed purpose during a small part of class. 
Ease of use for the teacher: Creating assessments is pretty easy. Getting to results is a little less so (all your classes in the same subject get mashed together), but still worth the effort.
Cost: Free. 
Link: goformative.com