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| Delve into details at Engchat.org. |
Monday I'm hosting Engchat. The slated topic Reading Amplified: Digital Tools that Engage Students in Words, Books and Ideas. The beautiful and brilliant, Meenoo Rami has been tweeting the usual Engchat reminders this week. A reply from Julie Balen got me thinking this morning. Integrating technology needs to be transformative. Balen is right. I want to share examples of such transformation, but I started small when I began to integrate technology.
Reading Amplified is not a book about sweeping projects or deep inquiry or solving world problems. Reading Amplified is more about reading instruction than technology. I would love to write about social justice and poverty and tap into Kiva.org to examine economics and have students micro-manage loans and build businesses. I can imagine that unit and how Nerdfighteria could help me craft it. Maybe next year. Adam Garry and Bill Ferriter, The Tempered Radical, do just that in Teaching the iGeneration, a book I highly recommend.
Reading Amplified isn't that book. It wasn't written for that audience. My audience teaches in schools that walk the line between Title I and everyone else. My audience teaches students whose parents probably did not go to college. My audience teaches students who have the lowest numbers in this study of Teens and Technology from the Pew Research Center.
My audience might not include you.
I didn't write the book for blog readers or blog writers. I didn't write the book for Tweeps or Facebook friends. I didn't write it for smart-phone wielding literacy leaders or ed-tech gurus. I didn't write the book for teachers who have websites or use wikis.I didn't write the book for professional development mavens or anyone who consults full or part-time. I did not write the book for my PLN.
Sorry.
I wrote the book for teachers, specifically, English, language arts and reading teachers. I wrote the book for teachers who have not had a tech-rich classroom or learning life. I wrote the book for teachers who are a little afraid of the brave new world. I wrote the book for teachers who think integrating technology has to be something complicated. I wrote the book, and created videos, for teachers who want to learn and need a place to start.
Really, if I'm being honest, teachers (and students) have to start somewhere. Isn't all learning transformative?
Simple tools new to the user transform the landscape.
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I'm doing a lot of thinking today about transformation and learning continuums. Where we do start when it comes to integrating digital tools? How do we help teachers who don't know how, begin? At what point do we become transformative? Those a few ideas we could chat up on Monday, but what would you like to talk about during Engchat? Tweet questions and ideas to @spillarke or begin in comments. We'll have an hour Monday evening to dig in and discuss. 
This sounds like a very interesting book. I work in a Title I school. Technology is old, our district server is old and yet we are to include technology in the standards and our teaching. As a teacher librarian I am working with teachers on how to make it happen. Elementary students are just learning how to determine the important information on paper and they get so lost with finding the info when on the computer. Will be looking to read this book.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jone. The technology in my classroom is old too. It is challenging and as you point out gathering information on paper is different from gathering or curating or evaluating information on the computer.
DeleteWe never know what step we take in our classroom become "trans-formative" in our students' lives. Poetry Slam which you have brought to our school is trans-formative although low-tech. Each step we take with students/teachers to help them become better able to overcome the obstacles in their lives matters. They might not have the time or means to transform the world, but they might gain the means to transform their world. Although you did not write your book for me, I believe it is for me because it helps me re-see ways I might use tools that I already use or confirm what I know to be true.
ReplyDeleteThis is so amazing to me. I have been a coach in a culture that is exactly what you are discussing. I need to read this book and share this book with my literacy team. xo
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you see yourself in the culture I describe. I think there a lot of school communities like mine. I hope you enjoy the book. Your team can read the first chapter as a preview--it's online and costs nothing.
DeleteThere is such a need for your book! I appreciate your words, "I wrote the book for teachers who have not had a tech-rich classroom or learning life." This is true for so many of us. How to help challenged and deprived students (and families) learn and use - and dare to try - new technologies, to integrate digital tools into their lives...so very, very important. No doubt - transformative, if done right. Love your focus on "transformative." Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you sharing your thinking, Maureen.
DeleteI love the idea of striving to be "transformative". I love technology, but I have been frustrated by the lack of access my students have. (As you know, our school is targeted Title I and some of my ELLs are some of the neediest there.) They have embraced Goodreads and blogging with delight though, despite the fact that some of them don't have access at home and we have to schedule lab time in class since we only have 2 computers in our classroom. Maybe your book would be a good book for me to share with some of my less-techy colleagues! (By the way, I think it's AWESOME that you wrote a book, and more awesome that you wrote it for those teachers who really need a book like that!)
ReplyDeleteYou make me smile--you are AWESOME! I'm looking forward to Skyping tomorrow. Thank you for connecting during this challenge and for braving the frustration around access and need in order to engage students.
DeleteReally wishing for a smart device to participate in your chat on Monday. Perhaps instead I will be reading your book. So many great ideas in your posts!
ReplyDeleteJaana, you can follow the chat online, on a computer at Tweetchat.com Just type in the #engchat hashtag and you'll be able to see the conversation. To participate or add to the chat you have to sign in with a Twitter account, but you can read and be there without having a Twitter account too.
DeleteTechnology is one way to be transformative in our classrooms, but it is not the only way. Even though I have a fairly tech-rich life, many of my students do not. Because I teach two advanced classes and two inclusion classes, I see a sharp divide in access and comfort throughout my day. I try to let the students with access and comfort go and use the tools they have while I try to support and encourage those who are still afraid of breaking the computer.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, tech is not the only way to be transformative. Sounds like you have found a way that works to bridge the divide and support students' learning. Thank you for sharing your thinking and experience.
DeleteI know that there is much we can do as teachers, Lee Ann, but I also wonder if we shouldn't ask the students too. I think they might be very helpful in the search. It's late & I can't think more, but will try to join you Monday! Your book doesn't sound like something for me exactly, yet I am a 'go to' tech person (about education) but I struggle with getting some of the teachers learn to transform their classrooms in their use of tech.
ReplyDeleteStudents' experiences and voices do matter, Linda and sometimes teachers can call of their student experts as they delve into new-to-them technologies or tools. You sure were up late, Linda! I hope you rested well and have a lazy St. Patrick's Day ahead.
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