Session 3 Blog Post

Q: Can technology integration in American classrooms adequately and correctly be expressed as a hierarchy? Why or why not? Bonus: Create your own hierarchy.

In listening to Dr Newberry's podcast regarding his ideas on the hierarchy of technology in schools today I found myself thinking seriously about where I fall in this hierarchy. Before I answer that though I would like to respond to the question for the week. I do feel that the use of technology can be expressed as a hierarchy though I agree with many of my classmates in that the shape of it is changing. It can no longer be expressed as a triangle because the movement among the levels is fairly fluid. By this I mean that while there certainly is still a large number of teachers at the bottom, I feel that teachers can be in more than one level at a time. As Kenny mentioned in his blog there seem to be "mini-levels" between what Dr Newberry has described. I feel that teachers can fall between step 2 ( use as a teacher tool) and step 3 ( non-integrated use as student tool). For example, a teacher at my site primarily uses his computer for management purposes however occasionally it is used for career assessments (by students) in preparation for their IEP meetings. He also uses it to assess their approximate math and reading levels. In that respect it used at a middle level between steps 2 and 3. I also have witnessed teachers bouncing between levels of this hierarchy depending on the make up of their classes. For instance a science teacher at my site uses on online program for dissection of cats with two of his classes and the "real specimens" for hands on dissection with a different two classes. His instruction bounces between levels depending on the topics covered and the make up of his class. I understand his point of view, perhaps some of his classes are more challenging behavior wise and therefore he feels doing dissection virtually is better for them, but what about the students he does "trust"? Should they be denied the virtual experience because they are better behaved? This is a difficult topic for me because I understand the challenge but am not sure I would handle it differently. It is definitely something I need to think about and work on changing as a teacher.
Back to my thoughts during the podcast... I would like to think that I fall somewhere between levels 2,3,4 on Dr Newberry's hierarchy. At times my computer is used primarily as a tool for management, at other times I use it for assessment purposes with students in preparation for their annual IEP meetings. Yet other times I feel technology is deeply integrated into my lessons (level 4) in all the subjects I teach.

Bonus Hierarchy-

Level 1 - zero student use of computers in the classroom/no working student computers
- technology used is outdated (overhead transparencies) and ineffective for today's
learners
Level 2 - basic technology is used for lesson delivery and student use (LCD's/ working student
computers/ smart boards/ powerpoint presentations by students and teachers..)
Level 3 - fully integrated technology use by teachers, students, families - everything in level two
plus things like online interactive textbooks, teacher/student created communication
(blogs like the one set up for this class), interactive online learning sessions, etc