Teaching+With+Technology

Roy P. Benavidez Elementary Home of the Eagles



Teaching with Technology

Hello Benavidez Technology Community Members!

We are all about to embark on an exciting educational journey. For the next few weeks, we are going to be exploring technology applications in the classroom. I have started reading “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” by Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski. Most of us will recognize the last 4 words of the title as the name of the book that the faculty read a couple of years ago written by Marzano, Pickering and Pollack. Robert J. Marzano wrote the forward for “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” and the two books are very similar in organization.

A few of the topics that we will be discussing are: “Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers”; “Nonlinguistic Representation”; “Summarizing and Note Taking”; “Cooperative Learning”; “Reinforcing Effort” and “Identifying Similarities and Differences”. Do any of these chapter titles sound familiar? They should, because they are also chapters in “Classroom Instruction that Works.” These topics are now covered from the standpoint of how to implement technology applications to teach the concepts, allow for application of the knowledge and to assess mastery.

We will also explore 3 learning theories: the Constructivism Theory, the Connectivism Theory and the Cyborg Theory. Please click on the following links to view brief videos on each of the theories: [], [] , and []. After you watch the videos, please click on the “Discussion” tab at the top of the page to comment on the theories. I can’t wait to see what all of you think!

After reading articles on and reflecting about these 3 learning theories, I have come to the conclusion that we all learn via a combination of the 3 theories. We all build upon our prior knowledge and personal experiences to learn new things (Constructivism.) Most of us are now past the point of rote memorization of facts and now rely more on research skills that enable us to locate information (knowledge) from social or technology sources when we need it (Connectivism.) Cyborg theory teaches us that we must find innovative ways to utilize technology for educational purposes. I wonder if we can brainstorm educational applications for texting and social networking sites that could be implemented on our campus.

There is an abundance of technology applications that we could be using to enhance student achievement on our campus. In the coming weeks, together, we will be discovering new and innovative ways to appropriately and effectively integrate technology applications to increase student engagement and augment content application, synthesis and mastery.

I realize that we are all very busy and you may not always have enough time to participate frequently in the Benavidez Technology Community. But I urge you to check in regularly so that you can learn something new that can benefit your students. Please remember that we must be relentless in our dedication to preparing our little eagles to soar.

Resources: “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” Howard Pitler, Elizabeth Hubblell, Matt Kuhn and Kim Malenoski “Using Classroom Instruction that Works” Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering and Jane Pollock