Integrating Tech
On my classroom web home page I
stated my mission simply "is to provide
students with a variety of activities, resources
and strategies to ensure learning is an active,
personally relevant and meaningful process."
This mission has been reinforced with solid
research.
I read that a group in 1992 had started with the
understanding that "Most apparent was the
belief that learning had to be 'charged' for the
student - that it had to have some passion, some
vital quality that pushed a student to
uncertainties he/she may have. Without this
connection between the learner and what was being
learned, the experiences in the classroom lack
authenticity. We realized that in order to create
authentic learning situations, we had to encourage
students to make decisions about the things they
wanted to learn."
Research helped me locate
resources to reinforce my thinking.
Integrating technology didn't mean demonstrating
the use of the latest gadget with the most bytes,
gigabytes, terabytes but
something more. Integrating technology
is based on solid learning theory and new tools.
As a result according to Seymour Papert Director, Epistemology and
Learning Group at MIT,
"Well, first thing you have to do is to give up
the idea of curriculum. Curriculum meaning you
have to learn this on a given day. Replace it by a
system where you learn this where you need it. So
that means we're going to put kids in a position
where they're going to use the knowledge that
they're getting."
We have as a result looked closely at concept attainment, inductive
reasoning, multiple
intelligences, and project based learning as
vehicles for authentic learning.
