As we continue our 5 - Week series on the SAMR model for technology integration, we will finally get "above the line" into the transformation stage.
The past two weeks we have looked at the Substitution and Augmentation levels, which mostly enhance your classroom tasks, but do not essentially transform them. The modification stage of the SAMR model is defined as the point in which the technology allows for significant task redesign. In the ongoing example of using a word processor to type a paper. We started on the first level of SAMR saying that there was no difference in the task between writing and typing the paper. Then we went up to Augmentation and started using the different features of the word processor (spelling and grammar check, word count, formatting, etc...). As we take this same task above the line into Modification, we can add in Google Docs and the ability to collaborate world-wide on a document. This task would not be possible without the use of the technology and with the collaboration piece the task looks different all together for the most part. The writing still exists, but in a collaborative manner.
