Using Technology with INTENT

I feel lucky to have access to multiple perspectives on #EdTech from individuals that come from all over our province of British Columbia.  Karen Lirenman, from SD39 in Vancouver (see what I mean about all over the province?) presented on technology in the classroom and it’s many uses.

Connecting with Karen from across the province is similar to one of the themes that she discussed in the presentation.  Using Twitter and other social media platforms for learning is something that was discussed as well as creating and using a class twitter account.  Classes could use twitter to get a global audience and connect to the world through hashtags and other mass chat tools. For example, the class account could complete activities such as:

• Take a pic of the window (does not give any identifying info away) and caption “this is what our window looks like, what does yours look like?”
  • This starts a conversation that can kickstart learning within your classroom.
• You can also use social media for data collection from around the world
  • “What is your favourite ice cream” poll
• Finding a bug, taking a picture, and asking twitter what kind of bug it is. How they know.
• **Important** Talk twitter safety

One of my biggest takeaways from this presentation was Karen’s emphasis on technology as an advantageous tool not a replacement in learning.  Karen said “Tech should be used to amplify what you are already doing—making already good work, better.” She also discussed that tech has two main encompassing avenues in your students’ lives: creation and consumption.  In a classroom you should be focused on presenting tech in a way that students are using it to create rather than consume.  Teachers should be allowing tech for students in the way that it works best for them; this will look different for every student. Some students may use the speech to text program to report their ideas and thinking while others may just type it out to articulate their ideas.

It was interesting to hear Karen discuss using tech just because it is a hot topic in education is not a good reason to use it.  We also heard this idea in other words from Sally Song a couple weeks ago.  This aligns with the theme that you should be intentional with your lessons.  Have some passion and your students will follow that.  If you are using tech because you are told to, students will feel like it is a chore as well.