Technology Integration...Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned

Seven months ago, I wrote the following professional goal: "My Professional Goal is to maximize and enrich instruction through the use of technology in my classroom. I would like to enhance my instruction by connecting technology resources with the curriculum and having students productively use technology to enrich their learning.  I also hope to help students make meaningful applications to the world through the use of technology."

Looking back over the past semester, I have had many opportunities to grow in the area of technology use.  Over time, I have developed a Twitter PLN of passionate educators with the goal of educating future-ready students.  I have followed technology blogs and have had the opportunity to learn from technology mentors.  These experiences have helped me to refine technology integration in my classroom.  

I remember teaching one of my first technology integration lessons in January.  I had created a Kahoot to prepare my class for a comprehension test.  Students were engaged and I was amazed at the immediate feedback I received.  I realized how powerful a tool like Kahoot could be in my classroom.  This was my view of technology integration then: a single lesson created to maximize student learning and ultimately help them perform well on an assessment.  

As an advocate for other educators and someone who is passionate about preparing students for their future, I hope to teach others that this is NOT the sole purpose of technology integration.  There are many positive effects of technology in the classroom, but preparing for tests does not get my students ready to be productive citizens in the world.  In my classroom, one of the most powerful impacts has been the way technology allows for natural collaboration.  Using multimodal digital texts, students and teachers can interact and use literacy in new and exciting ways.  Teaching students to interact digitally is one step towards creating responsible citizens.  

Since that first Kahoot lesson, my view of technology integration has definitely evolved.  As I reflect on the past few weeks in my classroom, I recall many new experiences.  I hear students working together to demonstrate "How-to" writing planning videos using FreeFlow.  I feel my excitement as my classroom filled with parents and students that had come to see my students' "How-to" videos.  I see the joy on their faces as they received feedback about their videos.  I watch my students using Aurasma to make their Wonders Anthologies come alive with Tellagami and Chatterpix overlays.  

I have learned that technology integration is not isolated lessons that teach to the test.  It has permeated everything that we do in my classroom; it has become a way of life.  As a life long learner, it is exciting to think about the future of technology in my classroom.  I plan to continue to perfect what I am doing with the goal of meeting curriculum standards and most importantly creating responsible and productive digital citizens.