Previously inconceivable: what can technology do for learning?

In the SAMR model for technology integration, the highest order of technology integration involves transformation of teaching and learning by allowing students to do tasks that were previously inconceivable. How can we design learning so that students begin doing things we had not even conceived of?

Having the IB inquiry based curriculum helps. We allow students to show their learning in a variety of ways, and we encourage student-driven learning.

Some aspects of technology integration that have the power to transform learning are:

• Peer assessment: when students only get feedback from their teacher, they are only getting one perspective. While it is true that teachers are professionals and highly trained in assessment, we can also recognize that there is value in hearing different opinions on a piece of work. This is why competitions have panels of judges. Additionally, students are developing their ability to evaluate their own work. This is an important aspect of self management, and a crucial skill in the 21st Century. Evaluating the work of our peers helps us broaden our perspective on what we create, and develop our taste.
• Building a digital footprint and publishing work: Our students are active in their personal social digital footprints, but academically they are comparatively silent. We can help them keep these two footprints separate by providing sheltered tools for publishing to create their academic digital footprint. For this they need guidance on privacy settings and appropriate use, and they need the opportunity to practice engaging in academic online networks. Publishing iBooks and blogs and participating in Google+ communities (only Grade 8-12) helps them build their academic profiles in a supported environment.
• Transfer of ideas between personal social networks academic social networks: Students are building their own norms in their peer groups through their personal social networks, and the connections and relationships they build now can help them in their future. By creating a space for students to participate in an academic social network with a high teacher presence, we are able to help them build norms that are appropriate in an academic environment. Students are learning in their social networks. Perhaps they are sharing their art or their gaming skills. They often do not associate their personal development with learning. However, online learning, such as how to put on make up or how to do an Ollie (that's a skateboard trick, see more here), is teaching them research, communication, application, and evaluation. Significantly, they are learning for fun. Because they want to. Even thought it's hard. When we make room for them to make connections between the learning they do for fun and the learning they do for us, there is hope that they will become more engaged and learn our curriculum for fun. That the curriculum will become theirs. Great innovation and previously inconceivable learning happen when learners are engaged and motivated. In a reflection about working on a Minecraft world, one student said, "it's an enjoyable experience, but we also get work done." Our best work comes when we enjoy what we do, and when we help students make the connection between learning and fun, magic happens.
• Collaboration through social learning and exchange of ideas: Working in groups, being able to solve problems with others, suspending disbelief for long enough to consider a different point of view, and making connections between seemingly disparate ideas such as Math and Art are just some of the skills required to address the problems the world is facing today. The most important thing that technology can teach us is what makes us human, and our understanding of humanity is changing. Where previously competition and domination were seen as the path to success, we are now finding that connecting and collaborating are more effective for healthy global and personal development. Our students need support to learn to listen to one another, divide labor, bring out the benefits that each group member can provide, and connect beyond their immediate friendship groups.
• Communication through use of multi-media tools: Our students are finding their voice, developing their taste, and tapping into their creativity. I love this piece by Ira Glass about creativity and developing taste. It's a great reminder that taste and creativity are not something we put into students, but rather something we help them find in themselves (by making them do a lot of work). Experimenting with design, information graphics, the written word, emoticons, data interpretation, movie making, photography, audio, music, word clouds and more, students are able to develop their ability to make connections between what they think, what they feel, and what they know. They are able to communicate ideas that go beyond regurgitation of facts and expand into the communication of ideas. They are able to make meaning and engage with the world around them.
• Access to learning resources: Students can learn for free online about virtually anything. We can support them in finding and evaluating these resources, and help them develop metacognition so that they understand how they learn and what resources will best support them. We support our students in directing their learning, and we help them find their motivation to learn. We provide a structure for the learning, give feedback on the learning, and celebrate learning. Khan academy, ECIS iTunes U, and Codecademy are just some examples of what is out there. Our students can tell us many more.

We have many resources at our fingertips to help students reap the benefits of our technology rich world, including:

1:1 Macbooks
Google+ (grades 8-12)
Library online databases and catalogue
Drive
Blogger
iMovie
Teacher Dashboard
iBooks
Garage Band
YouTube

As we plan for student learning, we strive to make room for that which is previously inconceivable. This video that recently travelled the pathways of Facebook captures some of the beauty that I see in living in a connected world. When I think to the dominant paradigms of my youth, I can confidently say that this video is previously inconceivable, not only in its technology, but also in its humanity.


Here is an interesting article about what it took to make this video.

For further consideration:

This iBook goes into further discussion about our technology integration framework and some of the ways we are already integrating Technology at ISPP.

https://itun.es/ca/fWdV5.l

Allan Carrington's Pedagogy Wheel connects Bloom's taxonomy, action verbs, activities, and apps that help reach higher order thinking and previously inconceivable tasks, as well as listing attributes of higher education graduates which are desired by CEOs and executives.

To do things that are previously inconceivable requires innovation, and innovation requires motivation. It is worth reflecting on how we build our motivation so that we find the power to innovate. In Drive Daniel Pink describes motivation as having three core elements which can help us motivate students and build our own motivation:

• Autonomy: The desire to be self directed. Emphasis on compliance has an adverse effect on engagement.
• Mastery: Urge to get better.
• Purpose: Needs to be transcendent. When profit/rewards are more important than purpose, quality and innovation go down.

This RSA Animate provides a more detailed summary of Pink's ideas.