21st Century Instructional Technology Program

Facilitating the implementation of a 21st Century instructional technology program.

SAMR

Implementing a 21st Century program takes many forms in the school setting. This means being part of a Media & Technology Advisory Committee, functional PLT and others involved in other programs within a school, such as magnet committees and any new initiatives. I have been able to do all of this as well as model innovation within classrooms through our AM Innovations and Innovation Hours this year.  Within these parameters we have had opportunities to demonstrate and coach teachers to build understanding of the best methods to utilize technology resources in meaningful ways.

AM Innovations has been a series of challenges that students encounter each morning, in place of the typical morning work. These challenges are framed within the Design Process algorithm of Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype Creation and Testing.  I have included 2 designs that we worked with during the 2017-18 school year.

These designs offer students off-line and technologically infused activities that follow the SAMR model to find the best tool for the task.

Innovation Hours continued this process, as teachers and students were part of experiences that utilized a variety of methods and resources to tie into curriculum. As part of a connection to the 3rd Grade EL curriculum, students were involved in a series of Design Challenges where they used coding and robotics to program Dot & Dash, BeeBot, Bloxels and Ozobots to solve challenges which progressed in difficulty. They then reflected on ways that they approached challenges, learned about different modes in which they could present their strategies and then created a digital representation that displayed their strategies. Below are links to resources that were used during this process.