TEACHING MODULE
If you have any questions or comments, please email teachingmodules@edutopia.org.
Technology Integration
What Is Technology Integration?
The use of technology resources makes twenty-first-century learning possible.
A Remarkable Transformation: Union City Public Schools:
Students at an editing station match music to images in a tribute to the firemen of 9/11.
Technology integration is the use of technology resources -- computers, digital cameras, CD-ROMs, software applications, the Internet, etc. -- in daily classroom practices, and in the management of a school. Technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent. Technology integration is achieved when a child or a teacher doesn't stop to think that he or she is using a computer or researching via the Internet.
Technology integration is achieved when technology is accessible and readily available for the task at hand, the 21st Century task. Technology integration is achieved when technology tools support the curricular goals, and help the students to effectively reach their goals. Students are more actively engaged in projects when technology integration is a seamless part of the learning process.
The acceptance of change is a major requirement for technology integration. Technology is continuously changing. It is an ongoing process. It demands continual learning. Change is not always easy. The initial human reaction to change is resistance. Resistance makes for slow change, but change is inevitable.
These are actual quotes from individuals in education showing the initial resistance to new technologies:
The course of change, and the introduction of new technologies, progressed in spite of the initial resistance. Change led to progress.
"Effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyze and synthesize the information, and present it professionally. The technology should become an integral part of how the classroom functions -- as accessible as all other classroom tools."
-- National Educational Technology Standards for Students, International Society for Technology in Education
Today, technology is a transparent part of children's lives. Many homes have computers and Internet connections. These technologies bring the tools of empowerment into the hands and minds of those who use them. They lead to A Change in Attitude.
When effectively integrated into the curriculum, technology tools can extend learning in powerful ways. These tools, including the Internet and multimedia applications, can provide students and teachers with:
- Access to up-to-date, primary source material
- Methods of collecting and recording data;
- Ways to collaborate with students, teachers, and experts around the world
- Opportunities for expressing understanding via images, sound, and text
- Learning that is relevant and assessment that is authentic
- Training for publishing and presenting their new knowledge.
|
These pictures of students from Harrison are all proving that technology integration is alive and well in Harrison Central High School in Gulfport, Mississippi. Technology integration has led to change at Harrison, in the way the teachers teach, and in the way the students learn. It is not an isolated situation. Visit the following schools. Watch and read how technology integration is a part of the students', teachers', administrators' and the communities' lives. Witness just what the integration of technology can do. |
A Remarkable Transformation -- It took time, teacher buy-in, and technology, but this urban school district in New Jersey has gone from dismal to dazzling.
A 'Fantastic Super' Use of Technology -- Computers and multimedia are seamlessly woven into the curriculum at Mary Scroggs Elementary School.
Broadband, Big Screen! Enlivening English Language Learning in Southeast Los Angeles -- To help his students broaden their English language skills, this fourth-grade teacher creates visual lessons using digital cameras and Internet search engines.
A Seamless Integration of Technology -- At Sherman Oaks Community Charter School, interactive technologies support the curriculum and facilitate communication among the staff.
The New P.E. Curriculum -- How one Naperville, Illinois, junior high is using high tech tools to support its exemplary P.E. program.
Free teaching module
Good article it was very helpful.
Integration of technology
Lots going on in this Gulfport, Mississippi classroom.
I do not have access to probes but I'd love that component to use.
My students are busy creating a documentary within their community where they interview older members as well as younger students to see what each did or do for recreation in our town. We hope to enter the video in a competition being held in May.
My students use Power Point to share their research on health and science topics. They also tutor other students using resources they find to support the learning topic needs.
I feel like I still need to do more with my students as we learn more effective ways to integrate technology.
I wish there were time in the day!
I have seen many different ways of intergrating technology into curriculum throughout our schools. Students working at the high school level working independently developing a broadcasting class. They are taught from the beginning of this course how to work independently and how to integrate what they are doing with others in order to make a great broadcast.
Amazing New Tools
What amazes me most is the incredible number of data collection tools that are now available, especially in the area of science. What used to take beakers and test tubes, test strips etc, can now be done in a instant with handheld digital devices that the data can then be put in the computer to be analysized. Students can then graph their results and see more accurately what the data is telling them. I am excited about these and hope that budgets willing, we can begin to have some of these data collection tools available to our students.
I am also beginning to think about how to use computers as a means for our science notebooks and then we can easily import the data and graphs right into a digital notebook that others can look at and give feedback on. Students can word process their observations, use digital cameras to show what they did. There are so many possibilities!
Tracy Lavallee
3/4 Teacher
Underhill ID
Jericho, VT
The initial resistance comments from the past were great and I will suggest using them at my school's in-service training to open people's eyes about their own attitudes towards today's technology.
I also feel that the comment "Technology DEMANDS continual learning" is something that must be an accepted policy in any technology curriculum planning.
Integrating Technology
It's amazing how much there is on the web and for technology to support our students! I wish we as teachers had more time to really find what is out there. I know I spend my summer finding great technology and sites and then using that throughout the year. Of course technology is changing so quickly so it is important to have time to learn about the new technological advances and then have time to get it ready for the following year. I find it very exciting to see what technology is coming up with next but at the same time, I feel a little, actually very overwhelmed by keeping up with it and then integrating it in my classroom.
thank. ur so sweety and our happy thanks again