Technology Integration in the Digital Age
Minnesota Catholic Education Association
August 21, 2008

Cara Hagen - Highland Catholic School and Hamline University

Introducing the Book from YouTube

 

  • TubeSock for Mac
  • YouTube Grabber 3.1 for Windows
  • DON'T FORGET TeacherTube!  A resource of videos for teaching at all levels created by teachers just like you!

Technology Integration - What was I thinking with this topic?

 Everyone knows what it is, but everyone thinks it's something different.

    • Key words and phrases:
      • effective
      • teachers and students
      • support instruction
      • content areas
      • classroom practice
      • learners are empowered
      • actively engaged
      • constructivist approach to learning

      Okay, so if that's what integration means to teachers, what does it likely mean to our students? To find out, let's look at how these Digital Natives are using technology to learn without us.

      • Pew Internet: Social Networking Web sites and Teens: An Overview, January 2007
        • 55% of teens have a social networking personal profile (MySpace, FaceBook, etc.). Over half of these teens visit their site once or more per day.
      • PEW Internet: Cyber bulling and Online Teens, June 2007
        • 32% of teenagers who use the internet have been on the receiving end of bullying type behaviors online, ranging from annoying to menacing. The most common form is making their private information public online.
        • However, the majority still feel bullying is much worse and happens more often in person than online.
      • PEW Internet: Teens and Technology - Youth are leading the transition to a fully wired and mobile nation, July 2005
        • 87% of teens (defined as age 12-17) use the internet; 51% daily.
        • 84% of teens own one or more "personal media device" such as a computer, laptop, cell phone, PDA, etc. and 44% have two or more.
        • 45% of teens own cell phones and 33% text. They prefer texting/instant messaging to email.
        • 81% of online teens are gamers.
        • The largest jump in online use occurs between at seventh grade.

      So, here we are, Catholic educators in Minnesota a week or two before the 2007-2008 school year starts. What does all this mean for a bunch of Digital Immigrants like us?

      We ALL have to start making steady and significant moves forward in order to engage our students in the learning process. Start moving to the next stage.

      "I’m getting tired of hearing people continue to ask for the evidence that technology helps students learn. It doesn’t matter. We know — that good teachers help students learn. We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world." David Warlick

      • Personal Productivity (Word Processing, Communications)
        • Communicate with students and parents via email: daily or weekly bulletins, homework tips, recommended holiday reading lists, etc.
        • Involve students with these tools: word process papers, illustrate stories
          • Research online lesson ideas. Kathy Schrock is a great place for all grade levels and all curricular areas.
      • Teaching with Technology (Presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote, Projectors, maybe even Interactive White Boards!)
        • Project based learning - have the kids make the presentations
        • Collaborative student work - Kids work in teams to develop different sections of projects using multiple applications
        • Get the kids on the IWB - let them teach, let them demonstrate, let them learn!
        • Research for the answer every time a question is asked - have a student use the classroom computer to find the answer or research it for tomorrow's class
        • Check out the web resources provided by your textbook publishers: Harcourt, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Houghton Mifflin, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
        • Don't forget your professional organization: ISTE, IRA, NCTM, etc.
      • Student Technology Use (Internet Use and Research, Student Presentations & Projects)
      • Student Technology Integration (Interactive, Multimedia, Collaboration)
        • Publishing Their Work to the Internet
        • Web 2.0 Technology Lessons in your Classroom: Blogging, Wikis, Podcasting
        • Contributing to Public Internet Sites such as Wikipedia
      • Student Content Creation (Publishing & Contributing)

      A few things to keep in mind as you learn and grow with technology:

      • Student safety with technology is an ethical as well as legal (CIPA) responsibility. Read and follow your Acceptable Use Policy. If you want to do something that's not approved, work within your school system to make changes for use.
      • You can't stop. Our children aren't stopping their use, application, and growth with technology so we can't either. If you succeed at the first step, then move on to the next.
      • We aren't helping our students prepare for their future by educating them for our past.

      Can we?  Of course we can!

      Watch Kathy Cassidy and her first grade class Telling the New Story.

      What if we don't?  We might be featured in a Teacher Movie. 

      Other resources I've stumbled across: