SAMR Model

Wow, this was awesome.  There are times when I come across something that inspires me that I have just got to stop and say "Wow".  Peuntedura's SAMR model has done just that.  Why is that?  I am glad I asked.

I view myself as a fairly "willing" teacher in many cases.  If I can see the benefit in something for my students, I am willing to give it a try.  Technology is a "can of worms" though.  Every piece of technology out there is supposed to be "the tool" to improve every child's education.  Fact is, that is not the case.  Coming to grips with that has been hard for me because I want to push my students academically, while pushing both myself and my students technologically.  This has been stunted by my realization that now all technologies are created equal and I need to come up with methods to use the technology available to enhance my student's education further. This has been brutal to find traction with.  Every time I start to feel "comfortable" with something, I am already passed by.  What have I learned from this presentation?  I was trying too hard.

I love how the model is broken up into 4 labels divided into two sub groups.  These sub groups are Enhancement, which includes Substitution and Augmentation and Transformation, which includes Modification and Redefinition.  I believe I have delved into all four labeled areas in my teaching without really realizing it (of course not, because this term is new to me).

Substitution is an easy one to identify.  While assigning "projects" (because the word term paper is too daunting) to my students, I would encourage them to find information about whatever their topic was on x number of sites and also find information in x number of non-digital sources.  Of course the adage "when I was a kid" would come up from me, then I would push and push them to not lose sight of the analog world and its importance.  Why?  All I was doing is having them substitute information that they could have more easily and readily gleaned from the internet and incorporated into their final project.  With the news this week of Encyclopedia Brittanica stopping the presses for the first time since the 18th Century, it has become even clearer to me that I was/am behind the times.  Has the written word in good old fashioned books passed us by?  I fear so.  If that is true, I need to be ready for the next challenge.

An example of Augmentation would be when I have a science class and I am going over certain material and we head to the computer lab.  While there, the students will have an assignment/task that takes on the material that is in the chapter from other sources that bumps up the understanding of the material.  The task is more of a dig approach where students are presented with Q&A's they are to glean from their books and website.

Modification and Redefinition are certainly areas in which I need to direct my focus.  I believe I have done some Modification though.  For example, I have done in the past a project where I would give the students a  picture of the human body from a 4th or 5th Grade science book/copy sheet.  We would then build off that sheet.  We would develop the body into a more complex organism with details added along the way.  When students would have a new steam of information they were exposed to, they would develop their bodies more.  Eventually, entire systems were created, entirely by the students.

I believe I have an example of Redefinition as well (which as I am thinking about this, I want to use this again, but now in the technological age, it could be so much better).  I wrote a one-page story about a man in his kitchen.  The story took into account light steaming into the window, cooking on the stove, oven on, water boiling, refrigerator running, salt on food, etc.  The students were to take that story and apply all the different Physical Science applications they could come up with.  They were able to use any resources they wanted (book, people, internet, etc) to have them complete this task.  While a bear to grade (took forever), it was one of the best assignments I ever came up with.

Point is through all this though is that I believe that my chapters/units can take on a whole new engagement level by incorporating these 4 teaching practices, while focusing on Modification and Redefinition (because this is where I believe there is more "bang for the buck").