| Each year, principals have the opportunity to nominate teachers for recognition as Keystones: Technology Integrators. This program is designed to celebrate model technology integration practices across the state. From the pool of nominees, each district sends on two teachers to the regional level. This year, Salisbury is represented by Diane Kasaczun (Learning Support teacher at Harry S Truman Elementary School) and Cathie Meholic (Mathematics teacher and Department Chair) at Salisbury High School. In this edition of the Instructional Technology Update, we feature Diane who gives us a glimpse into her classroom and the work she is doing using technology with her students.
Imagine this, you are sitting with your elbow propped on your desk, head in hand staring off into space with the background buzz of fluorescent lights, hall noise and the hum of one or two computers. Your mind is wandering to a more pleasant thought rather than listening to the speaker at the front of the room. Does this remind you of a day or two when you were in elementary school?
Gone are the days where students sit in their seats with a workbook open in front of them and the teacher does all of the talking, questioning, and directing. We are now in the age where learning has shifted from a teacher directed environment to that of a student/self-directed environment. In order to promote the type of learning where students need to be metacognitive, goal oriented and motivated, daily infusion/integration of technology is integral to its success.
It has become my obligation as an educator to promote that type of learning and to prepare my students for: lifelong learning opportunities and to be equipped to work within our fast paced information-based society. It has always been my personal philosophy to create a classroom where students learn real life and relevant strategies to become viable members of the community. It is nearly impossible to follow through with that philosophy without the daily integration of technology.
In the past, technology was used as a form of assistive technology. I have always believed the use of technology wasn’t just a way to level the playing field for my students. Students that are involved in an environment that integrates technology daily and where it is viewed as an integral part of learning develop high-order thinking skills and aid to metacognition.
We currently use a secure blogging site for the students to complete their responses to literature. This has increased the quality of response my students are now creating, helping them feel more advanced than their grade level peers. Classmates can read and comment on each others’ responses. It has decreased the fear of using words they speak but cannot spell. We used it as a forum for a book discussion, where questions and thoughts were posted so group members could respond. Entire discussions would ensue without my direction. It is eye opening to see the depth of thinking in those responses when teachers give up control. I participate in the discussion and the students view me as a member of the discussion rather than the facilitator. It eliminates that sense of “she is grading me” and it is replaced by “she listens to what I have to say and values it rather than critiquing it.” It has given my students the opportunity to take educational risks they would normally avoid.
We have recently added an interactive whiteboard to the technology repertoire that is currently in my classroom. The benefits of this type of technology are invaluable. It has increased student engagement, motivation, and knowledge retention. Recently, we used it for a whole group lesson to prepare for PSSA type questioning and responding. The initial lesson was once done on a traditional overhead and took ten minutes. This lesson extended to more than twenty minutes. We were able to add our thoughts to the margins of the text. Subject integration occurred when we inserted an outline map of the United States, labeled the ordinal directions, divided the map into quadrants, and located the southeastern section of the United States. Student engagement was 100%. Students are eager to interact with the whiteboard. We have used graphic organizers and manipulated what looked like sticky notes to frontload concepts for our entire social studies curriculum. Students organized their notes into categories, created a presentation on the whiteboard and then shared it with the class. This generated a discussion on reasons for the categories, the similarities and differences between the groups’ categories and built background knowledge all before we even started learning the curriculum content. We took a PowerPoint presentation to introduce the chapters with their headings and subheadings changing them into essential questions to focus our learning. This provided a springboard for the students to make decisions on what interests them, and they completed independent studies on their topics. The independent study took us to the next level of teaching students how to access information using the Internet and PA ACCESS. The use of scanning, using digital photography, and creating a presentation using PowerPoint and other media are also incorporated into the final piece. The more limited student created something on the knowledge-comprehension level where as the more advanced student moved into evaluation and synthesis.
Lastly this use of technology has provided me with a limitless supply of teaching strategies to keep my students involved and learning. It allows for the creation of dynamic interaction with the entire class. There is a higher level of student interaction, participation, and educational risk taking. Opportunities are vast and limitless. We have only scratched the surface. There are many avenues I still wish to explore so that I can create an environment that promotes life-long learning and the ability to function as a viable member of a community in this fast paced information-based society.
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