Technology Integration as a Transforming Teaching Strategy (2004)

Integrating technology into an already set curriculum can seem intimidating, especially to the experienced and veteran teachers. It is up to school districts and universities to make sure that technology professional development is made possible in an effective and modeling manner, so that educators understand how to implement the new ways of effective instruction into their teaching. The article said that in "1999, the US Department of Education found that less than 20% of American teachers feel adequately equipped with the skills necessary to integrate technology into their teaching." Administrations are looking at new teachers to help them bridge the gap in their schools, and to bring technology to the rest of their staff. This is inefficient, because the college professors are not being taught how to implement technology into their teaching. In order to implement technology correctly, we must analyze our teaching style. What is the most effective way to implement technology into our teaching? According to this article's research, a constructivist setting has been found more effective than a traditional approach. In the constructivist classroom, the teacher models effective strategys, and allows the students to work collaboratively on a situation while the teacher roves around observing and taking monitoring notes. The key word for this article is "model". Today's teachers must be taught how to use these new teaching strategies effectively the same way as our students. I feel a constructivist teacher learns the same way as his/her students...through exploration and discovery. Similar to Bloom's Taxonomy, this article touches on a few teaching practices on how certain teachers have integrated technology successfully into their curriculum. One teacher was introducing a lesson in Biomes. She started the lesson with the students taking notes off of a Inspiration page projected onto the wall. The teacher was facilitating the lesson (modeling) and guiding (managed) her students through their cooperative group work in many different settings. At the end of the lesson, students were in turn allowed to reflect on each other's learning, by evaluating each other's final Biome project. Technology was not the main driving factor to this lesson, but instead was one of many tools to help promote student achievement. "Technology should encourage student exploration" and foster "independent learning." As with everything we do, "instruction should reflect research based teaching strategies (best teaching practices)."