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Drexel University School of Education
Technology provides instant accessibility to information, which is why its presence in the classroom is so vital. Smart phones, computers, and tablets are already an omnipresent element of everyday life for students and teachers alike. It's only natural that the use of technological devices in the classroom are explored to create meaningful learning experiences for students of all ages.

Utilizing different types of technology in the classroom, including a virtual classroom, creates learners who are actively engaged with learning objectives. The implementation of technology also creates pathways for differentiated instruction to meet the unique needs of students as individual learners within a broader classroom climate.

What Does Technology Integration Mean in Education?

Integration of technology in education simply refers to the use of technology to enhance the student learning experience. Utilizing different types of technology in the classroom, including a virtual classroom, creates learners who are actively engaged with learning objectives. The implementation of technology also creates pathways for differentiated instruction to meet the unique needs of students as individual learners within a broader classroom climate.

How to Integrate Technology in the Classroom

There is a common misconception that the integration of technology in the classroom can be a financial burden for school districts, but students do not necessarily need their own tablets or laptops to succeed with technology. The use of technology during whole-class instruction can foster student engagement for auditory and visual learners. Integrating simple technologies Power Points, games, internet homework assignments, or online grading systems can be difference makers in students' growth in the classroom.

Power Points and Games

Powerpoint presentations can be used to introduce a classroom concept while providing the opportunity for engagement. Along with the use of graphics and bulleted information, links to videos that accompany the ideas presented in the Powerpoint can be embedded within the slides.

Educational apps in the classroom like Kahoot can be used to review information after a lesson or unit. Teachers can create and share Kahoots with one another while students can create anonymous user names to participate in the game. This allows for whole-class participation from students who may usually be reluctant to participate in class. Kahoot is accessible to play on phones or computers and teachers can determine if they want students to work independently or be assigned to teams.

Internet Homework Assignments

Posting homework assignments online (via learning platforms like Blackboard, Brightspace, and Moodle) is one way many teachers can begin to integrate technology in the classroom. Assignments are easily accessible, which can increase student engagement and help students become more organized.

Online grading Systems

Communication is a key element in education that helps teachers, administrators, parents, and students recognize a student's strengths and areas for improvement. Online grading systems such as PowerSchool open and facilitate lines of communication where teachers can post grades, analyze student attendance patterns, and manage transcript data.

Classroom Tablets

For classrooms that are fortunate enough to have tablets for students, technology can allow teachers to implement differentiation throughout instruction. Students can work at their own pace during assignments and teachers have the opportunity for one-on-one instruction.

Listserv

Software such as Listserv allows parents to manage and organize their emails. Parents can receive updates from teachers about important announcements, newsletters, and discussions that keep frequent lines of communication open.

Strategies of Implementation for Age Groups

The benefits of technology can enhance any contemporary classroom. However, the way technology is implemented and used in classrooms of various grade levels and content areas will differ.

Ways to Incorporate Technology in the Elementary Classroom

For younger students, technology can be used to build fundamental skills to prepare them for future independent learning. Students can use interactive games to reinforce math, spelling, phonetic, and reading skills. Sites like Spelling Training permit students or teachers to upload their own word lists to practice word pronunciation and create interactive games. Parents can also use these sites to exercise fundamental skills beyond the walls of the classroom.

Using Technology in the Middle School Classroom

As students begin to take steps to transform into independent thinkers, they can use technology to develop basic life skills. Students at the middle school level will gain independence by having different teachers for each subject. Using technology to acquire skills such as conducting research can be applied to any content area. Websites like Easy Bib guide students to find credible sources through a variety of search engines and teach students to correctly cite those sources to avoid plagiarism.

Technology in High School Classrooms

Once students reach their secondary education, they can discover ways to use technology that can be beneficial for college and career development. Familiarization with Microsoft Office and Google Drive teach students to make spreadsheets, slide show presentations, and share documents where they can receive fluid feedback on their work. Many careers use these elements of Microsoft and Google to organize information and collaborate between colleagues or clients.

Why is it Important to Integrate Technology in the Classroom

Teachers often find success when they present the opportunity to use technology in the classroom. There are various benefits and effects when technology is used for educational instruction and some may argue that not all of the effects are positive. Having an infinite flow of information and entertainment available at any given time could be seen as a distraction, but if technology is integrated into the classroom with routines in place that are monitored or assessed, the pros of using technology in the classroom outweigh the cons.

Keeping students engaged

Active engagement is a key part of any lesson plan. Whether students are working independently or collaboratively, technology engages students because it is interactive.

Helps students with different learning styles

Not all students learn and retain information in the same way or at the same speed. Technology is an opportunity for teachers to differentiate instruction to modify information for the appropriate learning capabilities of their students. The use of technology can also allow students to work at their own paces.

Prepare students with life skills

Technology has become its own form of literacy because of how often it is used in everyday life. Many careers use at least one aspect of Microsoft Office or Google Drive on a daily basis: balancing budgets on spreadsheets, creating decks or slide shows to be presented, or attaching documents to emails to communicate important information. Allowing students to learn and refine these skills prepares them for life beyond the classroom.

For additional information about programs or certifications associated with technology in the classroom, visit Drexel University's School of Education Instructional Technology Specialist Certification program.

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How to Integrate Technology in the Classroom - School of Education

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Check out our list of tips for the best ways on how to use technology in the classroom. Learn the benefits & effects of technology with Drexel University.

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contributed by Sara McGuire, venngage.com

Technology distracts students, right? Keeps them from focusing?

One solution is to ban phones and computers from the classroom. Another solution is to harness their tech-savvy and engage students with online tools that will help them complete assignments while still engaging them electronically. Whether they're working on a research essay, a presentation, a science project, or a math report, there are ample tools available to make the process more engaging for students.

Think about it-if students are growing up in a world that requires them to be tech-savvy, then shouldn't tech play a big role in their classroom experience? Here are ten picks for tools to engage students in the classroom.
15 Technology Tools To Engage Students In The Classroom 1. Augmented Reality Apps
Here are some augmented reality apps to get started.

Video is a wonderful engagement tool. Add a social dynamic in a school-friendly architecture and you've got Flipgrid. See some ideas on ideas for using Flipgrid in the classroom.
3. Video Games
I know this is general-merely saying 'video games' isn't actually a 'student engagement tool.' However, video games literally don't work without player input-and thus student engagement. The right game could change your classroom. Here are some examples of video games you can teach with.
4. Google Forms
We're starting with what's likely the simplest app on the list (well-aside the from background noise strategy): Google Forms

One of the best ways to engage all students in your classroom is to give students an easy (and even anonymous) way to ask questions, receive feedback, or otherwise reach out to the teacher. While there are many ways to do this, one of the most universally accessible (and free) methods is Google Forms.

Whether you provide specific questions and prompts for students to respond to as an exit slip (e.g., Was there any point during today's lesson where you were confused?), or you simple leave it as a way for students to post questions anonymously (which can be useful for some struggling students who might otherwise be hesitant to reach out), a simple messaging system or basic form can help improve student engagement.
5. Socrative
Like a few others on this list, you've likely heard of Socrative, a tool to "assess student understanding with prepared activities or on-the-fly questions, then adjust your teaching based on the results."
6. Kahoot!
Kahoot! is a handy tool that students can use to create in-class questionnaires and quizzes. This is handy for obtaining data for graphing assignments, data for research essays, and feedback from their classmates. Kahoot! is compatible with multiple devices and has a game-like feel that will help keep students interested.
7. Class Dojo
This is a fun tool to gamify the classroom. Students make their own avatars, gain and lose points based on classroom behavior, discussion approaches, and other soft skills agreed upon by the teacher and the class. Teachers can also use Class Dojo to take attendance and create graphs that breakdown the information for teachers. Not only will this tool encourage students to uphold class values, but it will also provide key metrics to help teachers adjust their teaching tactics accordingly.
8. Clickers
Classroom clickers may not be the higher-water mark for innovation in education, but as a simple and useful tool that you can use almost every day, it's a no-brainer for many classrooms.

This is a tool for teachers, to help assess students' understanding of concepts and their engagement with the material. With some tools, teachers can project questions onto their screen using while students answer them in real-time. Students' answers show up on the teacher's phone screen, and teachers can see which students got answers right and which didn't. This gives teachers an accurate picture of how students are following the information, and adjust their lessons accordingly.

Note, this is more of a general recommendation than an endorsement of a specific clicker tool or app. The problem with this otherwise 'no-doubter' recommendation is that many of the clicker tools are expensive-at least the ones we know of. Plickers, iClicker, Top Hat, and other tools are not only not free but often have monthly subscription-level pricing. If your school has the budget and you put it to good use, it's likely worth the investment.

Immediate responses from every single student instantly? That's a great strategy for engaging students.
9. Edvoice
Edvoice is a feature-rich communication tool with everything from lesson planning and rubrics, to messaging, announcements, notifications, and even tools to help prevent (or respond to) bullying in the classroom.

Depending on what you want the students engage in-you, one another, content, an assignment, etc.-they need to be able to focus, and classroom aren't always the easiest places to do that. Background noise can not only drown out excess noise, but more helpfully as students concentrate, there is less noise because they're concentrating. Neat trick, huh?
11. Venngage
Create interactive lessons, assess students on the fly, and see data and student responses in real-time. Students that can ask questions and receive feedback at any time are more likely to be engaged.

With so much focus being given to data analytics these days, data literacy is a useful skill for students to learn. Whether your students have collected their own data or they've collected it from other sources, being able to visualize their data in an infographic is a highly useful skill. Infographics appeal to both visual learners and textual learners. Venngage offers a selection of infographic templates that students can customize.
12. Prezi
Presentations are a core part of the curriculum but let's face it, PowerPoint isn't terribly engaging. Prezi allows students to create presentations that are more creative and exciting than was PP has to offer. Not only will this make the presentation creation process more interesting for students, but it will also make watching presentations more interesting as well. Plus, Prezi presentations are published publicly on students' accounts, so their classmates can access them later to check their notes.
13. Trello
Because so many students are in the habit of multitasking, a good skill to teach them is how to organize and streamline their assignments. Trello is a free and super easy-to-use tool students can use to create workflow charts. Multiple students can be added to the same board; great for collaboration on projects. (See also a better list of ideas for project-based learning.)
14. Virtual Reality
For most classrooms, virtual reality still isn't viable. Even if you do have a headset, you likely don't have 30. But in terms of 'student engagement,' it's difficult to improve on virtual reality. We use a Pico virtual reality headset for learning, for example.
Bonus 15. Cold Turkey
Students probably won't love this one but it's a useful tool you can use to mitigate the amount of multitasking students can do on their computers. Cold Turkey is a tool that allows you to block certain websites or the internet in general so that students can focus on their tasks. Even having students turn it on for half of a period for some focuses in-class writing time will make a difference in terms of their productivity.
10 Technology Tools To Engage Students In The Classroom

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15 Technology Tools To Engage Students In The Classroom

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contributed by Sara McGuire, venngage.com Technology distracts students, right? Keeps them from focusing? One solution is to ban phones and computers from the classroom. Another solution is to harness their tech-savvy and engage students with online tools that will help them complete assignments while still engaging them electronically.

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The ISTE Student Standards guide educators toward student-driven learning practices that prepare students to thrive in an evolving technological landscape.

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The SAMR Model is a framework created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura that categorizes four different degrees of classroom technology integration. The letters "SAMR" stand for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model was created to share a common language across disciplines as teachers strive to personalize learning and help students visualize complex concepts. The SAMR Model can be especially powerful during remote and blended learning when integrated classroom technology makes teaching and learning a more seamless experience for educators and students.

Image Modified from Original by Lefflerd's on Wikimedia Commons

While we often visualize the SAMR model as a ladder or staircase as above, this can be misleading because Substitution (the bottom rung or step) is sometimes the best choice for a particular lesson. This is why it's better to think of the SAMR model more as a spectrum. On one end, technology is used as a one-to-one replacement for traditional tools, and on the other end, technology enables experiences that were previously impossible without it.

Regardless of how you visualize it, the SAMR framework can be a simple and effective way to assess how you incorporate technology into your instruction.

The SAMR Model Explained (with Examples)

The SAMR model consists of four steps: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. Substitution and Augmentation are considered "Enhancement" steps, while Modification and Redefinition are "Transformation" steps. Think of the difference between seasoning an old family recipe (Enhancement) and creating an entirely new, original dish (Transformation).

Substitution

At this stage, technology is directly substituted for a more traditional teaching tool or method. It is a simple, bare-bones, direct replacement. For example, if you are teaching a government lesson on the Constitution, you might use an electronic or web-based version of the document instead of a hard copy. Students might also answer questions about the Constitution by typing them in Microsoft Word instead of filling out a worksheet with a pencil.

Substitution might also include a student using Flipgrid, Keynote, PowerPoint, Prezi, Slides, or a similar program to present information about an article or amendment to the class.

In this step, ask yourself what students stand to gain by replacing traditional tools with technology. Invariably, some situations will be better served by pen and paper.

Augmentation

The technology is again directly substituted for a traditional tool or method, but with significant enhancements to the student experience. Ask yourself if the technology increases or augments a student's productivity and potential in some way.

Returning to the Constitution example, a student might use classroom technology to augment a presentation on the 14th Amendment with a video clip of how equal protection under the law was enforced during school desegregation. It could also include interactive links to relevant supreme court decisions, such as Plessy v. Ferguson or Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.

Modification

In this stage, you are beginning to move from enhancement to transformation using the SAMR Model. Instead of replacement or enhancement, this is an actual change to the lesson's design and its learning outcome. The critical question here is, "does the technology significantly alter the learning task?"

A student presenting research on the 14th Amendment-to continue our example-might create their own unique graphic organizer for the class that not only includes the usual multimedia resources but represents a new product or synthesis of existing material. As another example, a group of students might collaborate in the learning management system (LMS) to propose a modern definition of equal protection under the law and solicit feedback on their proposals from classmates in the discussion section.

Redefinition

The last stage of the SAMR model represents the pinnacle of how integrated classroom technology can transform a student's experience. In this case, you ask yourself if the technology tools allow educators to redefine a traditional learning task in a way that would not be possible without the tech, creating a novel experience.

For example, after completing their group work and soliciting feedback from classmates (both tasks that could be completed "offline" although arguably not with the same experience as in the modified format), students could use technology to network with students in another state to see how regional differences impact how others think about the Constitution. Taking it a step further, students could interact in real time with citizens in another country to examine key differences in constitutional philosophy and law.

SAMR and Webb's Depth of Knowledge

Many educators use the SAMR model and Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK)[1] in tandem to make their technology integration more purposeful. However, it's a common mistake to conflate the two models and think that deeper technology integration (the M and R in SAMR) leads to higher-order thinking skills or increased rigor defined in Webb's DOK. This is simply not the case.

So, while it may be helpful to use SAMR and Webb's Depth of Knowledge to better flesh out your instructional strategy, keep in mind that they were designed for very different purposes.

Putting the SAMR Model into Context

A buzzword that's been on everyone's lips several years-even more so since the onset of COVID-19-is "blended learning." Educators talk about incorporating technology into lessons on a regular basis, but are you doing it in a meaningful way?

Simply substituting an eBook for a textbook or streaming the same lessons over video chat aren't going to cut it. It's essential to be purposeful in how you integrate technology into your instruction.

Just don't fall into that ever-present trap of thinking that Redefinition is the goal or the best approach in all cases. Remember: SAMR is a spectrum. Substitution can be your best option for a particular setting. But if your entire instructional approach consists of digitizing your resources without enhancing them-that textbook to eBook transition-then it may be time to evaluate why you're using technology in the first place.

Layering technology into antiquated tasks isn't going to improve the learning experience. But purposefully altering the substance of these tasks to address the skills students need today-and those they'll need tomorrow-will enhance learning.

[1] https://inservice.ascd.org/what-exactly-is-depth-of-knowledge-hint-its-not-a-wheel/

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SAMR Model: A Practical Guide for K-12 Classroom Technology Integration

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Discover how to enhance student learning using integrated classroom technology and the SAMR Model in your K-12 blended classroom.