SAMR Series part 5 of 6

Climbing the Ladder
Over the past 2 months, we have looked at the SAMR model of integrating technology into your classroom. We started talking about Substitution and then worked our way through the ladder to Augmentation, then Modification, and finally ended with Redefinition.  It's great to learn about these steps to the SAMR ladder, but how do we effectively move up the ladder?

1. Examine you tasks
As the SAMR model is task-oriented, it only seems logical that in order to climb the ladder, we need to examine the tasks we are having our students do in the classroom.  If you can answer Dufour's first question of, "What do I want my students to know and be able to do?"  Then you are well on your way to climbing the SAMR ladder.  By answering that first question, look at the verbs in your answer.  This will guide you to any tasks you will have your students do.  Be sure to achieve the level at which the standard is asking you to go to.  For example, if I want my students to "recall" information versus "create" something, my task will look totally different.

2. Examine the Apps and Websites
This is where many teachers fall into the traps and struggle to get out of the Substitution level.  The reason they struggle is because they are using content specific apps or websites.  In essence all these sites and apps are, are digital worksheets.  It becomes very difficult to climb "above the line" into transformational practice if we are doing the same thing we were doing before, but only with technology.  There is nothing transformational about having a student sit on an iPad and do flash cards versus taking a stack of note cards and doing flash cards.  Use the Apple slogan "Think Differently"!

3. Always, Always Start with your Learning Objective
This will be discussed a little deeper next time, but not matter what you do in your classroom, always keep that learning target (objective, outcome, etc...) in the forefront.  Don't be blinded by cute activities or flashy technology.  We are in the business of school.  We are here to teach kids.  We teach kids content (and then some).  We can easily become blinded by the newest greatest piece of technology, but if it doesn't fit our learning objectives, we are wasting time.