Technology Integration vSomething.0

Before we start, this post is inspired by Miguel Guhlin – I’ve taken these reflections from two of your posts.

One of the things that it seems that my new position entails is to get a handle on how technology is or is not being used in the classroom and the lab to facilitate instruction. To this end, there is also some measure of examining how technology is used in preparing assignments and the like. Before I moved to the north end of campus, I read Miguel’s post about Necessary Meetings (I think I’ll never escape meetings once my position really gets going) and toward the end he has his basic points. Number two is:

Provide training for all teacher specialists in C&I on the Technology Applications so that they can revise the content area scope and sequence. It’s silly to consider–as I have in the past–that Instructional Technology can review ALL different content areas. We cannot be masters of all content. So, Instructional Technology really needs to go to the source of scope and sequence–the teacher specialists–and facilitate change there.

I think this is the core to any group that is trying to facilitate the use and integration of technology. It’s about the scope and the sequence of the instruction, not about the tools that are used to get there per se (as Miguel also mentioned from FNO – “toolishness is next to foolishness”). So in my first tours around the faculty yesterday, I saw that what instructional support there was, was often either focused on tools, or provided without consideration for other courses or departments. For me, the scope and sequence is across the faculty and in some manner, across campus as students move between faculties. So if the ways and means that technology is used in one course isn’t consistent with courses in another department, someone is duplicating work somewhere. Ideally, even if there are more than one groups working on instructional design, they should be using a common play book in order to achieve smooth if not invisible seams between course experiences for the students. One way to do it is to make use of a chart like Miguel has already posted.