Kelly Mecca

ELED 104A

Professor Davola

12 April 2019

My personal technology goals include being familiar with current technology used in

classrooms, and be proficient enough to be able to use this technology to create informative

and engaging presentations for my audiences. I think it is extremely important to be

comfortable with the technology one is using during a presentation so you can focus all of your

attention on the information you are providing and not sidetracked with the presentation itself,

or even be able to troubleshoot a problem if one were to occur.

As I am about to enter the auditing world, I have a slightly different approach to

technology than an education major. However, as a campus ambassador for my firm, I can

relate to a teacher in that I create presentations to present to students both on and off campus

to educate them on my firm and the recruiting process in general for an accounting student, so

I will be taking away information from this course and applying it in that manner.

I think it would be extremely beneficial to focus on the “Citizen” standard within the

ISTE Standards for Educators in my classroom. Teaching students social responsibility in the

digital world is a big task due to the increasing demand for technology in today’s society, and

social responsibility in the digital world is not something that is necessarily innate to students,

or people in general. I would incorporate this into my classroom by having my students log on

to a digital world (similar to Fortnite or Club Penguin) in groups or teams. Each group will have a

set of tasks they must complete, such as working together to create a community of houses or
igloos. I would also give them each their own unique usernames and passwords, which they are

responsible for. This digital world lesson’s aim would aim to help create a positive experience

for students for build and foster relationships online, while also peaking their curiosity of what

else may lie within the digital world. The purpose of the username and password is for the

students to learn about data protection and privacy.

Another standard I would like to focus on in my classroom from the ISTA Standards for

Education would be “Analyst.” I feel that it is very important to understand the learning needs

of all students, so it is vital to have alternative options for students to express their levels of

knowledge for a particular subject. This could be as simple as having both multiple choice and

open-ended questions on exam, or allowing students to choose between two different types of

software, such as between Google Slides and PowerPoint. Communication is also incorporated

within the “Analyst” standard. I believe an effective way to implement this would be to have bi-

weekly meetings with each student (while the rest of the class is working independently) about

their progress within the classroom and give them to ability to voice their concerns as well.

Having open communication with parents is vital as well, so a bi-weekly email (after the bi-

weekly assessment with the student) would be sent to the parent/guardian to keep them up to

date as well as allow them to voice their concerns, too.

I believe it would be important for my students to know about the ISTE Standards for

Students to simply understand why they are performing certain tasks. I know as a student

myself in grade school, I would wonder why teachers would have us do certain tasks or

assignments. I would like to expose my students to these standards so they would know that

every task they are performing has a reason behind it. For instance, if I give the students a
rather vague task, some might get frustrated that I did not explain to them clearly enough what

I would like them to do. However, if the students knew and understood the “Empowered

Learner” standard, they would realize that I was intentionally vague and that I want them to

actively choose and pursue their goals.

After reviewing and understanding the framework behind the SAMR Model created by

Dr. Ruben Peuntedura, I feel that it is important to recognize the pros and cons of each form of

technology implemented in the classroom. It is also important to recognize when deterring

from technology is a better option. SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and

Redefinition) can be described as a spectrum of the integration of technology within a

classroom and is used to help students visualize complex concepts. It is a model that could be

used across all disciplines within education and enables experiences that would have been

impossible without the integration of technology.

In the Substitution stage of the SAMR model, technology is implemented into a lesson as

a substitute for a more traditional tool. For example, in a lesson about the viscosity of water,

my lesson plan would include using a PowerPoint presentation instead of writing notes directly

on the board to present the information to my students. Also, instead of using a traditional

worksheet, students would fill out a Microsoft Word document to record their responses to

questions pulled from the lesson. In this stage, the goal is enhancement of the lesson using

technology without necessarily changing the outcome. It is a direct replacement of a no

technology tool with a technology tool.

The next stage within the SAMR model is Augmentation, also considered a technological

enhancement in the classroom. However, Augmentation differs from Substitution in that

instead of just a direct substitution of a tool, Augmentation offers significant enhancements to

the students’ learning experience in hopes to increase the potential and productivity of the

lesson. To transition from Substitution to Augmentation in my viscosity lesson, I would use

videos instead of a lecture to present the information to the students, enhancing the

technology within the lesson (such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRqxvCNmYg0).

Also, allowing the students to use and explore on an interactive website instead of looking at

stagnant PowerPoint slides. Again, similar to Substitution, Augmentation enhances the learning

experience with technology but without transforming the output of the lesson.

Modification is the next stage within the SAMR model and, unlike the previous two

stages, it involves technology transforming the lesson and its outcome for the students. For

implementation of technology in this stage, I would ask the class to create their own video

based on an experiment involving liquids with different viscosities. In the experiment, the

students will record themselves using a dropper to put a variety of liquids on top of a penny in

order to analyze the viscosities of the different liquids. Along with the video, the students

would use additional technology (Excel) to insert their data from the experiment (how many

drops were able to stay on the penny until the liquid flowed off of the penny for each liquid) to

create a graph of their choice to display the outcomes of their experiments. The Modification

stage creates an actual change to the design of the lesson and its learning outcome.

The fourth and final step of the SAMR model is Redefinition and represents the peak of

how technology can be implemented to transform a student’s learning experience. The main

focus of this step is that the tasks completed throughout the lesson would not be possible

without the technology used. For my viscosity lesson, to incorporate Redefinition, I would use
technology for the class to have the opportunity to video chat with a chemist. The chemist

could go into detail about the properties of different liquids and their molecular compositions

to explain why some liquids are more viscous than others.