Talk:Definitions of "technology integration" in K-12
From WikEd
Su: An example of technology integration into a school system and the curriculum can be found at [1]. Eggbuckland Community College is a specialist technology college in Plymouth, England. The school particpates in a Microsoft scheme - all information about this can be found in the initiatives section on their website.
Questions for Su
Su, could you describe a typical classroom and what kind of technology you have available to you, in particular a math classroom. I know you do not teach math, but humor me. Thanks
RESPONSE: A typical classroom will have an intercative whiteboard and at least one computer in the room. Laptop groups will have pupils who will have a laptop each and are able to access lessons and information using wireless connections in the classrooms. The interactive whiteboard is used to teach the class, using websites, examples, PowerPoints, maths games etc. Some whiteboards can be controlled via a mouse at the computer or can be controlled using a touch-pen. Those classrooms that do not have interactive whiteboards have projectors installed, where the image from the computer screen is projected onto a whiteboard. I will contact the maths teachers at Eggbuckland and ask them for the maths games that they use within their lessons. There are also at least 4 computer suites available that can hold classes of around 35 students each, these classrooms are used on a timetable basis but can be booked in advance. Hope this helps - let me know if you want to know anymore!
READ THIS ARTICLE! Here's the link. It's from the Baltimore Sun (you'll need a free login) and it will go away in another week (although I snagged a local copy so we can share) but it seems to me to really get to the heart of the debate over technology integration. Low income schools are paying big bucks for Integrated Learning Systems (sometimes know as drill and kill) to try to get their test scores up while affluent districts focus more on using technology in some of the ways we've been talking about, as a tool to support learning. I was particularly interested in the different attitudes toward reading. In the poorer schools, reading is viewed as a basic skill and students are drilled. In the wealthier schools, students with reading problems are encouraged to read and supported in their efforts. They are surrounded by a "rich literary environment." If drill software is used, it is done sparingly and with purpose, not necessarily on the 45-minute-a-week schedule used in other schools. So...is there a place for drill and practice software in our definition of technology integration? I think this article could be used to argue both ways because IMHO it isn't the technology that we need to define as integrated but the way we use it.
Rich and Poor
A Comment: I am currently assigned to a school with a low SES population (Title 1 school) that does use an ILS to improve student achievement. I cannot book my students into the lab, so I wrote and got a grant to buy hardware for my class. I also work in a school in the same district that has its own foundation because it receives no federal funds. Parents donate generously. The foundation has bought computers for a lab, musical instruments, playground equipment. They also bought a SmartBoard for my classroom. I had 8 computers in my room, but with the new construction going on, most were taken away as they won't work on the network of the new building.
I have to tell you that in the poorer school, reading is taught as thinking using all the strategies a good reader uses. They have direct reading instruction daily, ILS work 2x a week, and AR for supplementary support. In the affluent school reading is as it's always been because the kids can already read. Teachers aren't engaging students at the level they can read and aren't incorporating the newer teaching strategies (e.g. Mosaic, Strategies That Work, etc.) The Title I school students work hard; the affluent students don't understand the concept. Should something be hard, some will work through it, but most get parental help.
If an ILS helps a student learn, is it an example of curriculum technology integration?
