I'm prestige in SAMR
I'm prestige in tech integration the same way I've prestiged in any FPS released since the birth of my son over three years ago, which is to say--I haven't, but I like to pretend I'm down.
As someone who has had 1:1 technology available for the entirety of her career, I think about this graphic a lot. Am I using my technology responsibly? Am I actually transforming learning tasks with my devices or am I just using them to use them? Am I wasting the tax-payer investment and potential benefits by letting those devices gather dust? There is some strange EdTech guilt that layers on top of the normal teacher guilt.
I thought about this recently when taking an old lesson digital. A major learning target in Algebra II is transformations of parent functions to form graph families. Normally, I would hand a group a parent function (something like y = I x I ), a trusty TI graphing calculator, and instructions to move the function left, right, up, down, compress it, stretch it, and flip it over the x-axis. The idea is to allow students to develop graphing form for a variety of functions through the connection between individual graphs and equations. It's a good lesson, but some of the connections can be lost through button mashing.
This year, I decided to make the lesson digital. I shared templates with the students and encouraged them to use Desmos instead of the more traditional TI's. They snipped graphs and equations alongside written explanations collaboratively. I sat at my desk and clicked between tabs, offering feedback and guidance where needed.
Students completed their investigations in near record time. Since none of the work was done on paper, we didn't create the suggested posters to close the lesson. Instead, using Google Cast for Education, groups shared their discoveries with the class. By the end of the two day lesson, we had discovered the graphing form for each of the major function families (excluding trig functions).
Did this lesson need to be digital? Obviously it's survived the last several years on paper, but I think it benefited from the transition. First, Desmos is superior to a TI for this kind of activity. It allows students to see equations and graphs side by side and easily manipulate the window to quickly answer the question, "How did changing the equation impact the graph?" Second, I was able to quickly and unobtrusively give feedback in real time to students. I didn't need to peek over the shoulders of three or four kids to get an idea of where the group was, and I didn't have to wait for groups to produce a finished product before redirecting them. I've also found that my students are more comfortable making corrections when they involve "backspace" rather than an eraser.
Now for the harder question: did I do enough? Given the limitless power at the fingertips of my students, it seems a bit lame to have such a direct translation from paper to digital lesson. Did I really do all I could to wring every last drop of Ed Tech goodness from this particular activity? Probably not. And that's something I'll have to revisit when I get to this lesson next year. At least I'm starting to get my toes wet in that SAMR ocean.
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| My favorite SAMR graphic. (c) Silvia Duckworth and Ed App Advice |
As someone who has had 1:1 technology available for the entirety of her career, I think about this graphic a lot. Am I using my technology responsibly? Am I actually transforming learning tasks with my devices or am I just using them to use them? Am I wasting the tax-payer investment and potential benefits by letting those devices gather dust? There is some strange EdTech guilt that layers on top of the normal teacher guilt.
I thought about this recently when taking an old lesson digital. A major learning target in Algebra II is transformations of parent functions to form graph families. Normally, I would hand a group a parent function (something like y = I x I ), a trusty TI graphing calculator, and instructions to move the function left, right, up, down, compress it, stretch it, and flip it over the x-axis. The idea is to allow students to develop graphing form for a variety of functions through the connection between individual graphs and equations. It's a good lesson, but some of the connections can be lost through button mashing.
This year, I decided to make the lesson digital. I shared templates with the students and encouraged them to use Desmos instead of the more traditional TI's. They snipped graphs and equations alongside written explanations collaboratively. I sat at my desk and clicked between tabs, offering feedback and guidance where needed.
Students completed their investigations in near record time. Since none of the work was done on paper, we didn't create the suggested posters to close the lesson. Instead, using Google Cast for Education, groups shared their discoveries with the class. By the end of the two day lesson, we had discovered the graphing form for each of the major function families (excluding trig functions).
Did this lesson need to be digital? Obviously it's survived the last several years on paper, but I think it benefited from the transition. First, Desmos is superior to a TI for this kind of activity. It allows students to see equations and graphs side by side and easily manipulate the window to quickly answer the question, "How did changing the equation impact the graph?" Second, I was able to quickly and unobtrusively give feedback in real time to students. I didn't need to peek over the shoulders of three or four kids to get an idea of where the group was, and I didn't have to wait for groups to produce a finished product before redirecting them. I've also found that my students are more comfortable making corrections when they involve "backspace" rather than an eraser.
Now for the harder question: did I do enough? Given the limitless power at the fingertips of my students, it seems a bit lame to have such a direct translation from paper to digital lesson. Did I really do all I could to wring every last drop of Ed Tech goodness from this particular activity? Probably not. And that's something I'll have to revisit when I get to this lesson next year. At least I'm starting to get my toes wet in that SAMR ocean.
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