Some colleagues of mine have just returned for a Beyond Laptops Conference at Yokohama International School. One of the things they brought back from this was a discussion of Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model of technological innovation.
This model describes four levels of technological innovation;
Substitution,
Augmentation
Modification
Redefinition
The first of these two levels are seen as being enhancement and the final two as transformative. Puentedura describes this process far more effectively than I could in the video linked to below and in a pdf found on his website and linked here.
Recently, and somewhat belatedly, I read Seymour Papert's 1981 book Mindstorms.
I was struck how, despite huge changes in technology and countless very expensive technological innovations, many of the changes he envisioned have still not come to pass.
I think that the TPACK model mentioned in the video provides a strong clue as to why this is so.
This model argues that truly effective technological innovation occurs when a teacher is combining a high level of pedagogical knowledge with both technical and content knowledge.
Too often schools make the critical error of viewing the tool as the pedagogy and its presence in school as an end in itself. Looking at many school's websites you will see phrases such as "We are a 1:1 Laptop school" or an "ipad school" etc. It is much less common to have schools who outline why they have the technology or what they are doing with it.
In order to help school's to do clarify their purpose in introducing technological innovation I have created a Digital Usage Review template based on the recent NESTA report Decoding Learning: The proof, promise and potential of digital education
I would suggest that for technology to live up to its transformational promise educators must be able to have clarity about the following questions, which for want of a better name, (suggestions welcome) I'll refer to as:
Pinchbeck's 3 P's of Technological Potential
1) What do I hope the technology will achieve in terms of my students learning? (PURPOSE)
2)How am I going to make critical pedagogical decisions about the use of technology? (PEDAGOGY)
3)How will I ensure my own knowledge of technology,pedagogy and my curriculum enables me to choose the correct tool to achieve my aims? (PREPARATION)
Educational Technology remains a truly exciting vehicle to enable students to expand their thinking and present their understanding in ways that have profound meaning to them. However if educators don't engage deeply with the purpose of technology and the pedagogy it supports, the full potential of technology will remain unrealised for another generation.
This model describes four levels of technological innovation;
Substitution,
Augmentation
Modification
Redefinition
The first of these two levels are seen as being enhancement and the final two as transformative. Puentedura describes this process far more effectively than I could in the video linked to below and in a pdf found on his website and linked here.
Recently, and somewhat belatedly, I read Seymour Papert's 1981 book Mindstorms.
I was struck how, despite huge changes in technology and countless very expensive technological innovations, many of the changes he envisioned have still not come to pass.
I think that the TPACK model mentioned in the video provides a strong clue as to why this is so.
This model argues that truly effective technological innovation occurs when a teacher is combining a high level of pedagogical knowledge with both technical and content knowledge.
Too often schools make the critical error of viewing the tool as the pedagogy and its presence in school as an end in itself. Looking at many school's websites you will see phrases such as "We are a 1:1 Laptop school" or an "ipad school" etc. It is much less common to have schools who outline why they have the technology or what they are doing with it.
In order to help school's to do clarify their purpose in introducing technological innovation I have created a Digital Usage Review template based on the recent NESTA report Decoding Learning: The proof, promise and potential of digital education
I would suggest that for technology to live up to its transformational promise educators must be able to have clarity about the following questions, which for want of a better name, (suggestions welcome) I'll refer to as:
Pinchbeck's 3 P's of Technological Potential
1) What do I hope the technology will achieve in terms of my students learning? (PURPOSE)
2)How am I going to make critical pedagogical decisions about the use of technology? (PEDAGOGY)
3)How will I ensure my own knowledge of technology,pedagogy and my curriculum enables me to choose the correct tool to achieve my aims? (PREPARATION)
Educational Technology remains a truly exciting vehicle to enable students to expand their thinking and present their understanding in ways that have profound meaning to them. However if educators don't engage deeply with the purpose of technology and the pedagogy it supports, the full potential of technology will remain unrealised for another generation.
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