How to Integrate Technology As a Classroom Goal
Technology has become an important part of many sectors of society, including education. This has lead many educators to explore different ways to integrate technology into their classrooms. Using technology in an educational setting requires careful planning and follow-up. There are four main tasks to complete before you introduce technology to your class: analyze your curricula, select assignments, survey your technological options anc create and implement the assignment.
Instructions
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Analyze Your Curricula
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Identify all the courses you currently teach or that you will teach in the near future.
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Think about which courses naturally lend themselves to the incorporation of technology. For example, if you teach history and/or literature, then you can add videos, group projects or online scavenger hunts to your lesson plans. If you teach math, your options might be limited by the content (sometimes, technology can't replace the demonstration of a new formula).
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Choose a course into which you will introduce technology. You can always add more courses later. When using technology in the classroom for the first time, it's important to start small. Integrating technology into your lesson plans takes time and energy. Don't hinder yourself by trying to take on too much, too quickly.
Select Assignments
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Examine the entire curriculum for the course you've decided to work with.
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Identify the units of instruction that are most likely to be well-served by the integration of technology. Look for some of these characteristics: group assignments, student presentations, opportunities for complementary videos, group discussions and student responses to specific questions posed by you.
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Select the assignment and/or activity for which you will create a technological component.
Survey Your Technological Options
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Determine what technology is at your disposal. Know in advance how many computers you have in your classroom, whether or not you have a high-speed Internet connection, whether or not you have access to a projector, or whether or not you can reserve time for your whole class to use the school's shared equipment, or computer lab.
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Adapt to the technological constraints of your students. Find out if your students have computers with Internet connections at home. If they don't, check to see if there is a library or computer lab to which they can have access after school and on weekends. If you're creating an assignment that students complete outside of class, then it's important that you ensure that all of the students in your class have the same access to technology.
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Survey the specific applications that are best suited for the assignment/activity. Will you show segments of online videos during the lesson? Will students use a wiki to create group projects? Will you use concept mapping software like Gliffy for a class project? Will you pose questions on a class blog for students to answer using the comments section?
Create and Implement the Assignment
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Select the application you will use for the assignment. You can use a wiki web site for group projects, online videos to illustrate a social studies lesson, or a blog to help your students learn a foreign language.
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Update your syllabus/lesson plan to reflect the new activity. This is especially important if you have to submit your lesson plan to a supervisor for approval.
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Create the assignment. If you're using a blog or a wiki, set them up for your class. If you're showing a video to the class, then bookmark the web sites for easier access. Whatever you use should be presented to your students in a finished format to encourage excitement and engagement with the new assignment.
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Use clear instructions to introduce the assignment to your students. Describe your expectations, and let them know when the assignment is due.
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Allow your students to ask questions throughout the activity.
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References
- Photo Credit computers image by Olga Chernetskaya from Fotolia.com
