Quick and Easy Ways to Integrate Technology into Your Teaching

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Quick and Easy Ways toIntegrate Technology into
Your Teaching

• Kim Peacock, B.Ed., M.Ed.

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Some Common Complaints About Technology
Integration

• I dont have time to figure out how to do things.
• I dont know what to do.
• I dont know how to use computers well enough.
• I dont have enough time in the computer lab with
  my class to do anything major.
• Its hard to find stuff that fits with the
  curriculum.
• The list goes on...

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The Best Way to Integrate

• Luckily, you dont really need a lot of
  experience to make some great technology oriented
  lessons.
• The computer should be a means to an ends - the
  tool not the focus of the activity!

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The following methods of technology integration
are no skills required (well, pretty much)
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Scavenger Hunts

• Scavenger hunts are a fun way to get students
  looking up facts or resources.
• They often provide very clear questions and
  locations (links) for where to find the
  information.
• Some higher level scavenger hunts have students
  use learned searching skills in search engines to
  find the correct information.

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Integrating Scavenger Hunts

• Scavenger hunts are well suited to any type of
  course.
• Scavenger hunts are only effective at grade
  levels where students have basic Internet skills
  (i.e., they know how to enter a URL and follow a
  link) and basic reading and writing skills.
• Scavenger hunts can be very short or very long
  depending on the number of questions they
  contain. It is reasonable to assume that a
  standard scavenger hunt will take one full class
  period.

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Scavenger Hunt Examples

• Science
• ELA
• Social Studies
• Math

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Teaching Tips

• If you are doing a higher level searching
  scavenger hunt, do not assume that students know
  how to search the Internet effectively or
  properly. Leaving students on their own to search
  when they have not been taught searching
  techniques can lead to a great deal of student
  frustration.
• If you are short on time and/or want to make sure
  students aren't slacking off, make it a
  competition - whoever finished the scavenger
  first with all the right answers gets some sort
  of reward.
• Having students who are ahead in their studies
  create a scavenger hunt for the rest of the class
  is an excellent enrichment activity. If you are
  able, let the student have a free class period
  when all of the other students are doing the
  scavenger hunt.

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Virtual Field Trips

• Virtual field trips are exactly what they sound
  like - a trip to another place or time without
  leaving the computer.
• Virtual field trips allow students to explore
  another location or period in time, often using
  images, sounds and movies to make the experience
  more realistic and enriching.

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Integrating Virtual Field Trips

• Virtual field trips are well suited to any
  subject area except math. Students can explore
  anything from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to the
  Royal Tyrrell Museum!
• Virtual field trips are well suited to students
  in grades 3 and up, as long as the students have
  appropriate Internet navigating skills (entering
  a URL, following a link, etc...).
• Virtual field trips can vary in length, but a
  realistic amount of time to allot would be one
  class period.

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Virtual Field Trip Examples

• Landscapes of Nova Scotia
• Museum of Civilization
• The Exploratorium
• The South Pole
• Our Solar System

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Teaching Tips

• Like any real life field trip, virtual field
  trips should have context. They should be
  relevant to the curriculum and meaninful within
  the context of what you are currently teaching.
  Follow up activities are essential to create
  meaningful links to what is going on in the
  classroom.
• Virtual field trips can be very effective if
  students are working in pairs.
• Make the field trip itself "purposeful" rather
  than a "browsing" experience. Have students look
  for a favorite artifact, or something to do a
  project on later in the unit. Give them a reason
  for looking, or they may lose interest quickly.

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Educational Games

• Educational games are a great way of teaching
  either rote skills (i.e., practicing
  multiplication tables) or even higher order
  thinking (i.e., playing a survival game).
• Although educational games have been created in
  every subject area, they tend to be more
  prevalent in areas that require rote
  memorization, such as math, science or social
  studies.

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Integrating Educational Games

• Educational games have been created for and are
  well suited to any grade level as long as they
  are used appropriately.
• An educational game is very well suited to a
  smaller time frame such as part of a class
  period.
• A common problem is actually allotting too much
  time to playing a game and then finding that
  after a bit of time, students are losing
  interest. Make sure you judge realistically
  whether your students will have the attention
  span to play the game for the time you have
  allotted to it.

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Game Examples

• Leon Math Movies
• Power Proofreader
• Math Baseball
• Spelling Match
• Game Goo

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Teacher Tips

• Although promises of games are seductive to
  younger grades, junior high and high school
  students may not be as keen if they think the
  game isn't entertaining or valuable. You're
  working with students who sometimes have very
  short attention spans - make sure that if you are
  going to spend time playing a game, it grabs
  their attention and has something to teach them.
• It is unwise to spend a whole class period
  playing an educational game unless the game takes
  that long. Make sure that you take some time to
  provide context for the game and to outline
  clearly how your game fits in with what students
  are learning. Basing a follow up activity on a
  game is also an excellent way to get students
  connecting what they learned by playing the game
  to what they are studying in the classroom.

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Simulations

• Simulations take students through a scenario.
  Unlike games, where students must be actively
  involved throughout, simulations often either
  just show a process or have students make a
  series of decisions at the onset and then show
  the results of those decisions.
• Simulations are well suited to courses that teach
  students scenarios, such as science or social
  studies, or to courses where there is a great
  deal of technical/mechanical knowledge to learn
  such as math, science or industrial arts.

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Integrating Simulations

• Simulations tend to be more appropriate for
  students from grade 4 and up. Students at lower
  levels sometimes have problems understanding the
  cause and effect nature of simulations, though
  this isn't always necessarily true assuming the
  simulation is clear and well developed.
• Simulations are excellent for very small time
  periods (10-20 minutes). They are very effective
  as an introduction to a new concept, or as a
  final activity after students have learned about
  a new process or scenario.

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Simulation Examples

• Virtual Lemonade Stand
• Soda Constructor
• Virtual Pig Dissection
• Virtual Frog Dissection
• The Human Body

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Teacher Tips

• Simulations work very well for students working
  in pairs.
• Let students share discoveries about the
  simulation they are doing. Sometimes creative
  students find unique solutions or scenarios to
  run through the simulation and sharing those
  ideas with the rest of the class can provide
  meaningful learning opportunities.
• Some questions to ask students after doing a
  simulation

• Did anything about the simulation surprise you?
• Was anything about the simulation unclear?
• Was seeing the process different from how you
  imagined it? How?

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The End...

• These are generally the easiest methods of
  integrating integrate technology out there.
• These four work especially well when you have
  limited amounts of time (like in your APT and
  IPT).
• There are lots of other, more complex ways to
  integrate technology, but those are for another
  time...