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Jeffrey Hight's List: Integrating technology into the classroom

  • Sep 09, 13

    Source providing information on the positives of technology integration in the classroom.

    • Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons Are Many
    • Properly used, technology will help students acquire the skills they need to survive in a complex, highly technological knowledge-based economy.

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    • "We cannot expect our students to jump in and create a meaningful piece of work that shows their applied understanding of a concept using a tech tool if we do not give them time to really explore not only the content, but the tool itself. While it does tack on some time to completing a project, it is worth it in the end to know that your students have had a chance to investigate questions they may have, for you to address any misconceptions and for a student to have a good grasp on content and/or a tool before they are asked to apply what they know.
    • "Learning in a connected, technology-rich environment enables young people to undertake meaningful experiences as they engage with peers, celebrities, relatives, and experts worldwide.

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    • The bottom line is that schools need to be proactive to help parents navigate this new terrain. The district should clearly explain the challenges and benefits of digital learning to parents, and provide them with suggested guidelines to follow in a supportive home structure. Schools need to assume the attitude that laptop and tablet programs are complicated for all families, and live by the credo "we are all in this together." They must understand that learning in a digital environment creates a bridge between home and school that is unprecedented and requires a new level of collaboration. Only then can the best interests of parents, students and, ultimately, the entire school community be served.
      • Showing the importance of not only implementing the technology in the classroom, but to share this knowledge with the parents at home.

    • Digital media offer a largely untapped but essential resource for students to develop basic reading skills. This is especially important for students who learn to decode print but then falter when they face the more complex academic language of specific content later in school, in areas such as mathematics, science, and social studies.
    • This is where digital media in school can make perhaps their most important contribution. This technology requires action in an environment; it generates vocabulary used in actual situations, which makes meanings clearer and easier to remember.
      • Applied learning using digital media.

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    • Let me be clear that I'm not advocating that we get rid of the good and valuable ideas, thoughts, or words in books--only that we transfer them to (and have students absorb them through) another form. Much of what students need to study is already in the public domain and can easily, in instances where it hasn't already been done, be converted to electronic form. Most contemporary works exist electronically, as do a huge number of historical books and documents. This would be an incentive to scan more of them. It would also provide an opportunity for academics and others to consider how notions of intellectual-property rights might need to be updated for the digital age.
    • But I believe the change would be transformational, in very positive ways, for education. Once the change happened, the college and its professors would be expected to enhance all electronic texts in useful ways. Student materials might contain not just the commentary of the individual professor but of professors all over the world. A student's Hamlet might contain not just the notes that a student would find in a print edition but collective notes from actors, directors, scholars, and other contributors. The college's version of Hamlet might be linked to whatever notes Laurence Olivier or Harold Bloom had written in the margins of their own copies. It might be linked to scenes and versions already on YouTube, or to open courseware from institutions around the world.
      • Benefits of insights from outside sources, delivered directly through the electronic text.

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