Technology Integration

Historically, educators have been expected to know their subject matter. This hasn’t changed, of course, but the amount to know has.  When teachers come into the computer lab, they often feel out of place.  A 500 page manual on how to use Office is overwhelming.  Teachers haven’t had time to study it, to really learn any of it.  In fact, they have barely had time to open the manual, relying on the technology integrationist to figure it all out.  
 A defining moment in my own teaching with technology was in the fall of 1996.  We had a brand new windows 95 lab with a 56KB frame connection. It was my first time with Windows.  I had a manual, had skimmed it, had practiced a bit, but found the entire thing rather daunting.  A student asked me a question to which I had no clue how to answer.  So I responded with a question, “Who can help us find that answer?”  Well, several hands shot up, and we had several things to try out.  Together, we figured it all out, and were well on our way to working on our presentations and research.  This was the first time I saw the benefit of collaborative learning with technology. 
The next thing I did was to assign a Virtual Travel project. Students were to plan a trip. But after a student asked me, “Can we travel with a friend?” and I said of course, then the collaboration made the trip become very real to them. Collaboration gives the learner control; the greater the learner control, the longer the learning sticks, and the more meaningful the experience becomes to our students.