Hola del nuevo, everyone!🙋♂️
As with any and all technological advancements, there comes a point where educators from all over the world must change their ways of thinking and doing things within their classroom environments by properly learning about, training themselves upon, and sharing out on the same in order to establish and apply authentic, meaningful content for their students, families and communities at large.
This is where classroom technology integration comes into play.
Please be sure to slowly stroll your scroll of a computer, phone or tablet screen as I take you through two of the premier models of 21st Century classroom integration through an intensive investigation--one which I hope will guide all of us to a decisively positive and progressive outlook that puts 21st Century learning at the forefront of global human advancement for years to come!
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For 21st Century technology to be precisely integrated in formal classroom settings, there is a dire need for 21st Century educators to thoroughly establish an optimized framework of analysis for effective technological assessment, selection and utilization (Kharbach, 2024).
Enter The SAMR Model.
(EducatorsTechnology.com, 2024)
Since its very inception in 2006 by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, this model highlights the need for educators to select, evaluate and integrate educational technology through the following four conceptual levels:
[[[The Substitution Level]]]
As part of this particular level, educators substitute an analog technology (like a piece of paper📜or a typewriter) for a digital one (such as Google Docs📄or Microsoft Word📎) without changing the fundamental functions of the same (Kharbach, 2024).
[[[The Augmentation Level]]]
On this particular level, educators use a digital technology to functionally increase the value of the learning task on-hand. For example, Microsoft Word📎can be utilized to write papers through its expanded features like page setup, spell-check and text-formatting (Kharbach, 2024).
[[[The Modification Level]]]
During this particular level, educators use a digital technology to greatly modify a given learning task. This can be seen in having students produce engaging podcasts with multiple forms of multimedia such as audio🔉, images 🖼️ and video 📹 (Kharbach, 2024).
[[[The Redefinition Level]]]
Throughout this particular level, educators use digital technology to create brand-new and unique learning tasks that were not previously available to participants. This concept could be completed through using Google Meet to coordinate a live percussion ensemble concert performance or a virtual Spanish restaurant tour from the other side of the world (Kharbach, 2024).
In the modern-day academic field, the SAMR Model has multiple purposes--including the blending of low-tech and high-tech means to promote 21st Century technology integration; the proper enhancement of both teaching and learning through student engagement between all four levels; the reflection on the part of educators to adapt and improve student learning through changes in digital technology; the strong encouragement of educator collaboration for a shared professional development on ever-changing technologies; the diversification of technological tool functions to meet the needs of different student populations; and the optimized measurement of technological impacts through real-time data collection (Kharbach, 2024).
Overall, the SAMR Model provides educators with a highly-structured approach to embedding 21st Century technology integration within lessons through the administration of faculty-guided best practices for effective learning transformations that benefit educators and their students alike (Kharbach, 2024).
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The TPACK Model, on the other hand, is a much more complicated framework of 21st Century classroom technology integration that was developed by Matthew J. Koehler and Runya Mishra of Michigan State University in the year 2006 (Townsend, 2024).
(TPACK.org, 2012)
References
Kharbach, M. (2024, May 4). Understanding the SAMR Model for Teachers. Educators Technology. https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2023/05/samr-model-visually-explained-for-2.html
Townsend, J. (2024, August 5). Tpack model explained with examples for the classroom. Nearpod Blog. https://nearpod.com/blog/tpack/
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Between both of these modeled frameworks of 21st Century classroom technology integration, I personally feel that the SAMR Model would be more likely to be accepted within my public school district over the TPACK Model due in large part to its inherent simplicity of explaining how no matter where individuals are with their own understandings of technology, they are very much capable to transition from using low-tech means of completing fundamental tasks into utilizing elevated, high-tech means for accomplishing both simple and complex tasks once thought impossible. In other words: everyone has the opportunity to rightfully level up their learning!⬆️
To educate my public-school staff on the SAMR Model, I would establish a dedicated team of educators from multiple disciplines to host at least four interactive professional development sessions that are committed to guiding everyone through each level--presented one-at-a-time through in-depth "sandboxing" of different forms of digital resources and tools that cover a myriad of subject areas. That way, all these sessions compliment one another while everyone on staff builds up their knowledge bases and proverbial academic toolboxes to voice concerns; share experiences; and offer assistance and support for both fellow educators and students alike to more consistently produce positive and progressive 21st Century skills paired with new bases of knowledge over the course of an academic school year.
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That's all for now, musers! Please be sure to check out both of these 21st Century technology integration models in your personal time so you can give them the old college try of understanding "the why!"
