Entry #1: Tech Thinking

I've decided to use this blog to journal about technology and Web 2.0 tools in my classroom. As a mentor for the Florida Digital Educators grant program I am expected to conduct action research in my classroom. I plan to use these musing and posts to gather my thoughts and process my experiences toward that end. My apologies to any readers who wander by... this is truly going to be a working place for me... a work in progress that I can later shape.

What is technology integration? This is a question I've been carrying around in my mind lately. I mean, I know what it means to integrate technology into my classroom. I've used a smart board. I currently have an LCD projector which I use almost everyday to engage students with live multimedia content that's relative to our daily lessons. I've used my iPod, my teacher computer, laptops, microphones, digital cameras and yes, even overheads (as antiquated as that technology is). The key here is "me" and "I". Nancy Atwell once wrote about teachers as "creationists." We love to create things for students to do. We love to create units of instruction, questions to answer, projects to complete and more. The problem with creationists in the classroom is that the teacher (creator) is the one doing all of the work. The teacher is doing all of the thinking, the problem solving, the analyzing and the synthesizing. More often than not, the students are merely filling in blanks, jumping through hoops, or more recently using the copy/paste commands on their keyboards.

So, what does technology integration really mean now? I think it means to shift the creative power from teachers to students. To truly integrate technology we need to teach students how to use it. How to use it effectively and with purpose for a given task. I've done that a bit, but I'd like to make technology and the tools we use our anchor---our tool for constructing new knowledge.

I teach students how to create podcasts (audio only so far) and I've supported students as they've participated in the International Science and Technology Fair. Still, I wonder. What is technolgogy integration? Surely it is not just "me" using all of these tools to wow kids. No, the real meat of integration is teaching students how to use digital tools to locate, analyze, process and synthesize content. Perhaps my question then becomes what would it take to create a fluid, technologically rich classroom in which students had the creative power?

I think it starts with projects. Finding or leading students to create digital or multimedia projects that build community and build shared content knowledge. That's where I think I'm heading.