help educators give up the belief that
integrating technology into their lessons—merely doing the same thing,
just with technology—will make
all the difference. After more than
20 years of using that approach, we
should recognize that traditional activities that integrate technology in
this way still focus on finding, recording, and repeating facts.
In my experience, adding technology hasn’t changed traditional teaching and learning, but it has made
poor pedagogy more expensive. And
many experts, including education
reform proponent Michael Fullan,
have reached the conclusion that only
effective pedagogy has the power to
drive improvements in education
( goo.gl/SW4nnS).
Focusing first on pedagogy and
learning objectives offers educators
an effective strategy for integrating
technology into classrooms. Some of
the world’s best school systems are
implementing this approach. In Finland, for example, pedagogical models
and practices take center stage, while
technological tools are relegated to a
supporting role. And in Singapore,
educators focus on high-quality instruction and see technology merely
as an aid to that goal.
Tackle Technology Next
Rather than planning activities around
technology, the CCSS and the ISTE
Standards emphasize teaching and
learning, two issues educators are
already very familiar with. What can
coaches learn from this? When they
focus on learning first, they can start
the conversation on the educators’
home court—not outside their comfort zone, where technology often falls.
Too often, coaches focus their efforts
on sharing tech tools at staff meetings.
This may be part of a broader effort to
help teachers develop technology fluency, but usually they are hoping that
teachers will make a connection to a
learning activity and adopt the tool.
The problem here is that this is “just
in case” learning. Coaches are helping
teachers learn about new tools just in
case they might find a use for it in their
classroom. This approach could work
if the teacher identifies an immediate
need for the technology, but if not,
another dilemma surfaces: The blackboard seems to have the same half-life
as plutonium, whereas technology
seems to have the shelf life of milk. It
almost needs a “best if used by” date
on it. If teachers don’t adopt the tool
instantly, it may not even exist by the
time they choose to use it.
Effective coaches seek a purposeful
and immediate link between the goals
of an activity and the new technology the teacher learns about. Both
the ISTE Standards and the CCSS ask
students to communicate, collaborate, gather and analyze information,
and express their learning in creative
ways. Most likely, students will be
using hardware and software to accomplish these tasks. Coaches can
improve this process by helping teachers first define the tasks they want
students to perform, such as communication and collaboration (ISTE
Standard for Students 2) and then use
that as the starting point for identifying and using the tech tools that best
meet those requirements.
Link Learning and Technology
Successful coaches also work with
their learning partners to explore the
activity they are trying to improve
and identify tasks that encourage
creative expression, communication,
collaboration, and the collection and
organization of information. Together
the coach and teacher clearly define
these and other educational needs
and then determine whether a given
technology can meet them while enhancing learning. If the answer is yes,
