CHAPTER FOUR The Technology Upgrade

he suggestion (or requirement) that one integrate technology into classroom instruction is sometimes met with resistanceresistance caused by the confusion and fear that come with doing something completely new. Too many educational leaders look at technology only as a means of transforming pedagogymoving from those practices and activities with which we are practiced and comfortable to those that are radically different. Its little wonder we might resist. Studies have shown that although a high percentage of teachers are using technology for administrative tasks, still only about half integrate computers into their daily curriculum. This is not surprising given that most administrative tasks are ones with which teachers are familiar, such as communicating with parents, recording grades, and doing attendance. A lack of technology resources, including computers, bandwidth, and staff development, may be an important cause of teachers lack of enthusiasm, but familiarity with teaching using technology is a too-often-overlooked factor in determining whether a teacher uses technology for the purposes of instruction. After all, some of us went to school before there were personal computers or the Internet. (It was fun riding dinosaurs, however.) The previous chapter was about how teachers can improve their performance using technology, but not with students in the classroom. This chapter describes how to move from increasing professional productivity to improving classroom activities and lessons with technology.

Getting Started with Technology in the Classroom

Constructivists say that you cant learn something for which you have no frame of reference. As a teacher, you can ease your way into integrating technology into your instructional practice by taking something you already do and adding a technology upgrade. 83

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In the table that follows, nd some common activities that you may already be doing and some ways technology can be used to upgrade the learning process.

Survival tip: Look for simple, basic technologies, such as spreadsheet software and presentation software, with which you and your students are already comfortable that can replace or enhance traditional activities and assignments.

Current Activity Teacher lectures

Technology Upgrade Add a computer presentation program.

Benets Graphics, sounds, movies, and photographs clearly illustrate concepts and heighten student interest. It is also easier for students to take notes. Students can easily edit and spell-check their work, and the nal product will be handwriting-proof. Illustrations or graphics are easily added. Online peer review and commentary are possible. Information is quickly accessed. Notes can be copied and pasted into a rough draft. Sounds and pictures can be used in multimedia reports. Online citation tools make creating bibliographies easier. Having access to a large number of resources allows a topics focus to be much narrower, making it more interesting.

Student writing

Require that writing be done using a word processor or desktop publishing program.

Student research

Require that students use some online resources, such as an electronic encyclopedia, a full-text magazine database, or Web sites.

THE TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE Current Activity Book reports Technology Upgrade Benets

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Math problems

Plays, skits, or debates

Time lines

Student speeches, student demonstrations, or student-taught lessons

Use a spreadsheet or All students contribute to the simple database with spreadsheet or database. Concise elds for title, author, reports can be used as a readers publisher, date, advisory by future classes. genre, summary, and recommendation. Use a spreadsheet to set Formulas and operations are up basic math story clearly visible. A spreadsheet has problems. charting and graphing capabilities. Data from original surveys can be converted into understandable information. Students practice numeracy rather than math facts. Video-record the These can be recorded for later presentations. analysis, and for sharing with parents. Editing is possible. Recordings can be saved as examples for future classes. Use a dedicated time Time lines are quickly created and line creation tool like are easy to read. It is possible to Timeliner, a add graphics and modify time mind-mapping tool segments. like Inspiration, or a drawing program. Video-record These can be recorded for later presentations. Have analysis, and for sharing with students use parents. Editing is possible. Save multimedia, recordings as examples for incorporating media future classes. Graphics, sounds, into computerized movies, and photographs can be presentations. used to more clearly illustrate concepts and increase audience attention. Slides can be used in place of notes.

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THE CLASSROOM TEACHERS TECHNOLOGY SURVIVAL GUIDE Technology Upgrade Use a drawing program. Benets Features of the drawing program can be used to create meaningful original illustrations or modify clip art. Digital camera images or scanned images can be edited and used with writing for improved meaning. Students can contribute outside of class. Shy students might be more likely to contribute. Longer, more thoughtful responses may be given. Computers can provide realistic scenarios and visuals in simulations. Online drill and practice software gives immediate feedback and increases attention.

Current Activity Drawings or diagrams to illustrate concepts or writing

Class discussion

Create a class blog with discussion questions.

Games or simulations

Use computerized simulations, such as SimCity. Have students use online games to practice basic number facts, vocabulary words, or grammar.

The key to a successful upgrade, of course, is the existence of a genuine benet to using the technologynot just adding for its own sake.

Survival tip: Start using technology upgrades with activities that dont currently work very well: that poetry unit that nobody likes; the rocks and minerals unit that bores both you and your kids; the unit on converting fractions to decimals that leaves too many students confused. You have thembe honest. Even if things dont go exactly as planned, you wont be destroying already-effective methods if you start by upgrading the least-effective areas of your curriculum.

Based on the examples from the preceding table, some of the key benets of the technology upgrade are 1. Helping the teacher address multiple learning styles by allowing extensive use of multimedia in lessons

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2. Motivating reluctant students and students who are excited about technology 3. Allowing students to add elements of creativity, especially visual components, to their work 4. Allowing anytime, anyplace learning and access to information 5. Allowing student performance to be reviewed and critiqued more easily, both by the teacher and by the students themselves 6. Increasing the audience for student work 7. Increasing classroom participation by reticent students An old adage suggests that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. The technology upgrade can be that rst nibble you take to successfully integrate technology into your classroom in positive ways.

Low-Hanging Fruit
Has your principal been after you to integrate technology into your curriculum? This seems to be something of an obsession in more than a few schools that have used the ready, re, aim method of technology planning. We purchased cool stuff, and now we need to use it! Overwhelmed by an increasing emphasis on test score improvement, ever-growing curricular objectives, and increasing class sizes, its easy to see technology integration as just one more mandate from above. But it doesnt have to be that way if you as the classroom teacher use technology to meet some of the challenges you already have. Here are a few simple ways to integrate technology into the curriculum that are fun, are educationally effective, and have a short learning curve. 1. Digital cameras. Good digital cameras, those with lots of megapixels, an optical zoom, an LCD preview display, and a PHD (Push Here, Dummy) mode, are now readily available for the cost of just a couple new textbooks. Every school library media center should have at least a few to check out to classrooms. Snap a picture, download it into your computer, and edit it with simple software. As a classroom teacher, you can use the pictures to add interest to multimedia presentations, school newsletters, and classroom Web pages. Kids can use digital photos to help explain science fair projects, record ndings from eld trips, document examples of geometric shapes, and illustrate their writings. 2. Kid Pix, The Graph Club, and Kidspiration. Each of these proven software packages for elementary students uses the computer in its most powerful formletting students explore and create in a visual environment. Each is accompanied by a wealth of lesson plan suggestions. And, most important, kids love using them.

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3. Student Google jockeys. As questions come up in classroom discussions, ask students to be Google jockeys who will nd credible answers on the Internet using a search engine. Oh, and be sure to ask their reasons for believing an answer is trustworthy. 4. Video cameras. Video cameras are a powerful means of helping students improve their oral communication skills. Watching ones performance is always eye-opening and as powerful as receiving a teachers critique.

Survival tip: Look around for old video cameras that use VHS tapes. These are easier to use than digital video cameras, and the tapes are simple to show, assuming you can nd a VHS player and television. 5. Collaborative writing tools. Rather than passing handwritten or printed and word-processed copies of essays around the class, ask students to use a wiki or online productivity tool like Google Docs to share their writing. By the authors giving editing permission, other students (and you) can add comments that are easy to incorporate into the next draft. The pragmatic reason for learning about and using technology may well be to meet a school mandate. But its use can make good pedagogical sense as well, increasing student motivation and enjoyment. Satisfy the bureaucrats and so something worthwhile. Its a twofer!