This week I had a proud moment with technology and curriculum integration. I serve on a tech team where we assist teachers with the implementation of technology in their lessons. One of the problems I see is that when teachers implement technology they often do it for "fun" or as a lesson hook... this can be great at times... but often times teachers do not understand how to authentically use technology to enhance core learning.
A new teacher came to me this week with a problem... her ELL students need more pictorial guides. They need to be front loaded with pictorial references and then have the ability to go back throughout the unit to refer to the pictures as a review.
She said she often uses Youtube videos as an introduction and stops along the way to discuss and ask questions. She asked if there was a way to give her students access to the videos with pictorial support that they can view at any time through the unit. She wanted them to be reminded about the discussions they had the first time it was used to front load information. She also wanted to avoid having inappropriate youtube ads pop up as her students went back for review.
We discussed her class needs and I showed her a video creation tool that sounded like it would fulfill her need, Zaption. She came after school for a quick 5 minute tutorial on how to create a video with Zaption.
She left my room excited and filled with ideas on how to use the tool to enhance her students resources.
Two days later, I got an email from the teacher that was full of !exclamation! marks... she was so excited because she was able to create a video to front-load material for her students. They used the stopping points as a whole class discussion. Then, the video was shared with students. Students were able to go back and reference the video as needed for scaffolding. The students thought it was "so cool" and it served an academic purpose.
This teacher found an area of need in her classroom and found and authentic way to use a fun tech tool to assist her students in the learning of core curriculum.
Now THAT my friends is a technology implementation WIN!
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