More Than Information

I recently attended the MACUL conference this past March. One of the most informative and engaging sessions that I went to was on the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) Model. I had never heard this acronym before, but essentially this is a continuum that is meant to take technology in the classroom from being used as a basic substitute for what is already being done to completely transforming learning. In this way technology is used to give students opportunities and experiences they never could have had if they did not have the technology they had in front of them. When Reigeluth stated,” Gradually over time it can be used to create methods that were previously not feasible,” in the opening paragraph of his article, Beyond Technology Integration, I was brought back that eye-opening session once again. This discussion is an incredibly relevant one in the field of educational technology today. In my own personal classroom, I have been struggling with the desire to personalize education and allow students to become self-paced in their learning and the fear that doing so would cause a deterioration in the area of group collaboration and peer instruction. However, Reigeluth stated that he believes group collaboration and peer instruction will be necessary vehicles in order for personalized education to be effective (pg. 11). Where I am standing, my students have such deep, meaningful discussions when they are grappling with a situation that I am struggling to see how those could continue if each child is working on a separate concept in a completely separate task.

Another thing that stuck out to me in Reigeluth’s article was the idea that education should be changing to meet the changing career demands. No longer are ordinary jobs such as teaching, law enforcement, and doctors, the only ones available. We should be preparing students instead to become problem solvers, because that is where the most meaningful jobs are being created. People are finding a problem they want to solve and they are solving it. Many of the jobs our students will have aren’t even created yet. Look at Google, a company started by two men who wanted to create a simple search engine to make life easier for themselves and the world around them. Google is now one of the leading innovative corporations around, employing thousands of people, and affecting almost every area of industry (most notably education). Each of the jobs and each of the developments by Google are based on a problem that needed to be solved. That is what we should be teaching our students: how to work with one another to solve problems, because in there lies their future.

In the article Of Luddites, Learning, and Life, Postman brings up a point that the reason technology is such a growing fad in the educational community is because it allows for quicker access to information. I would refute that point by saying that instead of being a quicker means to an end, it can instead provide students with opportunities never available to them prior to technology. For example, instead of a simple paper and pencil written essay, students now have access to videography software such as iMovie. No longer are they simply writing a script, they are now able to turn that script into a reality using deep analytical thought and the tools available to them. With programs like Genius Hour circulating the educational community, where students are finding problems and solving them, it is clear that technology is more than an influx of information; it is a tool used to challenge students to become problem solvers and to give them experiences they never could have had without it.

Technology is so much more than a quicker means to an end. Technology, used in a way that serves to transform learning, can be an unstoppable tool in individualizing instruction and challenging students in ways once thought inconceivable.