This week during our Internet for Educators, Mr. Bryce Ridgen presented some interesting information about teaching in a 1:1 environment. Mr.Ridgen is the principal at the Minnedosa Collegiate school in the Rolling River School Divison. Mr.Ridgen covered a lot of great points that could all fall under the umbrella of the TECH acronym of tech integration by teachers.
Mr.Ridgen introduced this model created by Jen Roberts as a replacement to the SAMR model for levels of tech integration. At the bottom of the model is the traditional level which in my mind would look like the standard high school classroom that I grew up in. There would be new tech like smartboards and laptops that are used to make tasks a little easier to accomplish. The next level (Enhanced) I think would be incorporation of tablets with interactive apps, interesting videos, collaboration on smartboards to enhance learning, maybe some VR units, and possibly a class blog or other social media use. Although students are getting a better learning experience, overall the tasks are still teacher directed. In order to advance to the next level students need a working knowledge of the tech tools used at the enhance stage, but moving forward students get options for assessments and platforms to showcase their learning. An example of this may be a list of places that students could research using VR expeditions, online videos, articles, textbooks etc. Students can then choose how they would like to demonstrate their learning through a few options i.e video, infographic, paper.
The final level involves a complete release of responsibility where student inquiry fuels their research and any form of media can be used to demonstrate understand. Mr.Ridgen gave a good example of this where he would let his students repeatedly demonstrate their learning through whatever media of their choosing. Mr.Ridgens' students produced rap videos, original musical compositions, restaurant menus, and stop motion animation of lego just to name a few. He had a rubric that the students followed but he was very flexible towards his approach. Watching him talk about his classes and seeing the work students came up with was inspiring! It was noticeable that students were showcasing their passions and expressing themselves while learning the skills/attitudes outlined by the curriculum using content as the vessel. Very cool Mr.Ridgen....very cool.
Awesome post Joe, I really like that you used the picture and spoke about the TECH acronym. I thought that was really interesting. I agree with your thoughts about Mr. Ridgen and his students and how their work were pieces of passion. That is how you engage your classroom. Give them the power to create something that not only is special to them but illustrates their learning. I can not wait to try out similar ideas with my own classrooms. What an awesome presentation and great post Joe.
ReplyDeleteGood job Joe, I like your blog. I also agree with you that smartboard and laptop are make teaching and learning easy compare to traditional learning. From that students can get more knowledge and they take more interest. Also that is time consuming and so we can save our time easily. Teacher can create interesting lessons, activities, and games as an assessment.
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