{"id":160,"date":"2018-04-07T04:08:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T04:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/?p=160"},"modified":"2018-04-07T14:09:08","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T14:09:08","slug":"advancing-the-integration-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/2018\/04\/07\/advancing-the-integration-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Advancing the Integration Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

What, exactly, makes technology perfectly suited\u00a0to be integrated across the curriculum? Why is\u00a0technology uniquely primed\u00a0to enhance\u00a0learning across subjects in ways that, say, grammatical skills in\u00a0Language Arts or problem-solving approaches in\u00a0Math are still most often taught as an isolated subject? How should\u00a0students learn\u00a0technology-related skills, and when should this learning take place?<\/p>\n

These questions haunt me. They have been discussed in\u00a0thousands of amateur blog posts, and also in a limited body of rigorous, peer-reviewed research<\/a>. I read ISTE’s\u00a0Journal of Research on Technology in Education every\u00a0publishing and contrast its findings with the flashier tech-related Edutopia headlines, but the clarity\u00a0I seek remains ahead of me.<\/p>\n

Because this is the year I am trying to examine\u00a0the semantic discourse of technology in education-related contexts, I should be as precise as possible and mention here that when I say\u00a0Technology<\/em>, I really mean\u00a0the skills of using digital technology \u2013 the various applications\u00a0of\u00a0devices or pieces of software. When I refer to\u00a0Integration,\u00a0<\/em>I mean\u00a0the\u00a0a model of embedding digital technology into classes and activities to support the learning of other subjects \u2013 and though I do say\u00a0‘other’ subjects, the\u00a0essential issue is that Technology is not itself a subject with it’s own curriculum \u2013 not in Ontario, and not until Grade 9 \u2013 so the ideas that underpin a scope and sequence for a ‘Computers’ curriculum oriented towards the elementary and intermediate divisions of student learners is\u00a0somewhat enigmatic to me, still.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Fridge\"<\/a>
Ideas go on the kitchen fridge whiteboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few of these ideas:<\/p>\n

Seamless as measure of successful integration,\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tech Integration into teaching as pedagogy, with consideration to the resources available, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Categories of tech integration, such as Blended Classrooms and Games-Based Assessment,\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newest draft of the ISTE student standards lay claim to\u00a0broad traits of learning students, such as\u00a0Innovative Designer<\/em> and\u00a0Creator and Communicator<\/em>. Surely the skills required for these important abilities cannot be solely the purview of Technology in Education. When 21st Century Skills\u00a0are\u00a0laid out in the P21 Framework<\/a>, there are\u00a0differentiations between\u00a0Learning and Innovation Skills;\u00a0Information, Media and Technology Skills; and Career and Life Skills\u00a0<\/em>in their grandest band \u2013 a grouping of kindred content cousins I can get behind, given April’s\u00a0#CITE2016 panel discussion on the relationships among Media Literacy and Digital Technology Skills.<\/p>\n

As I move forward in my work, schoolwide and with individual teachers, I really feel the need for a comprehensive vision\u00a0of Technology in Education, schools, classrooms and students’ lives that blends research about the influence of digital technology on\u00a0learning and teaching; notions of developmental readiness and age appropriateness;\u00a0identified knowledge and skills of using technology itself in learning contexts and life; and attitudes towards how technology can amplify teaching\u00a0content and relationships (good and bad), and enrich learning of all subject matter by empowering individual students and building stronger collectives in our small community.<\/p>\n

As we reach the end of another wonderful year of Cohort 21, I am grateful for the deep\u00a0experience and perspective\u00a0this\u00a0network\u00a0of teachers\u00a0offers to me as we learn together. I am inspired by the work being done across the cohort by teachers who participate and share so openly. I am humbled by our team of facilitators who model such strong leadership and community building.\u00a0Thank you for the conversations that clarify and the ones that challenge. I’m looking forward to what’s to come.<\/p>\n

Originally published:\u00a0Apr 22, 2016<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What, exactly, makes technology perfectly suited\u00a0to be integrated across the curriculum? Why is\u00a0technology uniquely primed\u00a0to enhance\u00a0learning across subjects in ways that, say, grammatical skills in\u00a0Language Arts or problem-solving approaches in\u00a0Math are still most often taught as an isolated subject? How should\u00a0students learn\u00a0technology-related skills, and when should this learning take place? These questions haunt me. They … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Advancing the Integration Agenda”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12,11,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}